Vivio Takamachi and the Magic of Earth
by Sieses
Summary: Chaos Magic has always been a sore spot for the TSAB. No matter their knowledge of magic and advancements in technology, they could never get it to do as they wished, instead having to seal it away in the bodies of its wielders. Now the method to control it has been discovered, but to get it they must deal with a society that resists change at all costs.
1. A Shift of Destiny

Disclaimer: I don't own either Harry Potter or Lyrical Nanoha.

* * *

A Shift of Destiny

A grey cat crept along the streets of London. Nobody paid much mind to the lone cat besides a few children who wanted to play with her, and she was eager to oblige them. After all, Lotte was very bored.

Ever since the plan they'd put into place fifteen years ago was foiled they'd been stuck on Earth without anything to do. The other two felt guilty, but fifteen years of being on good terms with Hayate had nulled that particular emotion for Lotte, leaving boredom in its wake.

Which is why she was now lost in London against her father's orders.

She looked up at the nearest road sign and sighed. Charing Cross Road didn't exactly tell her anything about her current location. She glanced at the various buildings along the street, and rested her gaze on a grubby-looking building named the Leaky Cauldron. Lotte's lips curled up into a cat's smirk; the building clearly had a magic theme to it and, based upon all the people ignoring it, that didn't do it much good.

Still, Lotte figured she'd go investigate the building. Out of the lack of anything better to do she'd decided to investigate every building that related to magic to see if she could discover magic on Earth. She knew she never would-the twelve other buildings she'd investigated with no success that day said that much-but she really had nothing better to do until Aria came looking for her. It wasn't as if she could find her way back without magic.

After somebody opened the door and Lotte could slip in, she found herself in a building filled with people wearing strange sort of robes, like wizards.

'Well, looks like I found some kind of cult,' the familiar thought in amusement.

Lotte took up a perch in a corner where she was sure nobody would bother her and began examining the building she had found herself in. As she previously noted there were only a select few people who weren't wearing the stereotypical wizarding robes and even then they weren't quite dressed normally.

It was time to do the thing that would break her spirits. She promptly started scanning for magic in the immediate vicinity, and was caught off guard when it hit her from all sides. The most amazing part was that the magic she was sensing wasn't compatible with Mid-Childan or Belkan magics, which was almost unheard of in the TSAB.

Too excited to care, Lotte decided to throw caution to the wind and morphed into her human form. The nineteen-year-old-looking girl's blue eyes scanned the room and held her breath when she noticed every eye in the room was on her. She let the breath back out when most people quickly turned back to what they were doing, and those who didn't seemed more bothered by her relatively normal-looking clothes than the fact that she'd just been a cat.

"Well, that's one way to make an entrance," a bald man which Lotte quickly identified as the barman laughed as he walked up to her.

"Ah, h-hello," Lotte stuttered. It was that moment she realized she had no plan going into this. She needed to alert the TSAB about this immediately, but didn't know how to do it without seeming suspicious.

"Not from around here are you?" Tom asked with a small smile. "Name's Tom."

"Lotte," the familiar said quickly. "Me and my family have lived here for a while, but we didn't know there was a magic community around here. It's been rather boring."

"I can imagine," the man laughed. "Sometimes I wonder why the ministry would make the only entrance to our world a pub. Not complaining-great business-but really..."

"I can see how it'd be inconvenient," Lotte laughed, but not only at the conversation. There was at least one entire magical government on this world, if the word ministry meant what Lotte thought it did, and the TSAB had missed it.

"Do you happen to have a room I could use for the day here?" Lotte asked abruptly.

"Of course," Tom said. If he noticed the abrupt change in topic he didn't mention it. "If you'll just follow me."

Lotte did, and soon found herself in a rather comfortable room above the bar area. It didn't cost her that much to stay there for the day, and luckily they allowed her to pay in non-magical currency, because the wizards had their own. After wishing Tom a good day, Lotte found herself alone in the room and decided to get to work.

;;Hey Hayate, you there?;; she asked through telepathy.

;;Hey, Lotte! How's it going?;; the woman responded, and Lotte could tell she was beaming on the other end. For some reason the woman thought of Lotte as family despite knowing full well what her plans for her were fifteen years ago.

;;I'm going to be frank here, Hayate; I found a magic community on Earth.;; The silence that followed that proclamation was terrifying to the cat familiar.

;;Very funny, Lotte,;; Hayate said at last. Lotte frowned at how Hayate didn't sound as if she believed her.

;;I'm telling the truth. The magic seems strange, too.;; Another silence followed, and it was suffocating.

;;Fine,;; Hayate sighed, clearly just agreeing to humor Lotte, ;;I'll send Rein to check it out. She'll probably be there tomorrow. Where should you guys meet?;;

;;Charring Cross Road in London. Outside of the Leaky Cauldron.;;

Hayate and her talked a bit more about things that weren't related to the wizarding world before ending the conversation, and Lotte decided to get some sleep. She would later be amazed that the magic hid her from her sister, who was much better at scanning magic than her.

* * *

Vivio was delighted. Her godmother Fate rarely had time to come and visit Vivio due to her job, and any time such as the current when she would be there was golden. It was even better when her adopted mother Nanoha was there as well. Vivio noticed how comfortable to two were around each other; they were like sisters. It sometimes made Vivio jealous, despite all the times she'd been told her relationship with Einhard was very similar to theirs at eleven.

Really, the only thing missing from the scene at the moment was her "aunt" Hayate. She was the biggest troublemaker of the Aces, which meant it was instantly hilarious any time she showed up, either because of something she did of Vivio's mothers' reactions to them.

Currently they had all slid into the stage they were essentially ignoring each other. Not intentionally, of course, but they were just so comfortable that they didn't really need to interact.

Nanoha had started cooking dinner, because apparently the other two would end up blowing up the kitchen if they tried. Fate made a comment about how that was only fair because Nanoha blew everything else up, which Vivio confirmed, having been one of those things in the past. The brunette's face lit up like an apple and they hadn't seen her since.

Fate had started watching the news to find out what had happened on Mid while she was off planet finding Lost Logia-magical objects that were too dangerous to be used by anybody. She would make sarcastic comments about a story every once in a while. Vivio would occasionally join in, depending on how much a story caught her interest.

For the most part though, Vivio was shadowboxing. While she'd started to use more Mid-Childan magic again, she was still more comfortable with Belkan, given her heritage. One could argue that her ancestor never used Modern Belkan, but little details like that were lost on Vivio, for she simply didn't care.

The scene was interrupted by the doorbell ringing, and Vivio shot over to answer it.

To Vivio's ever increasing delight, Hayate was at the door. Vivio took a breath to call for her mothers, but stopped when Hayate puts a finger over her lips. The raised eyebrow that took its place on Vivio's face was met with a slight giggle from the woman.

"How would you like to take part in a mission?" Hayate asked, mischievous smile taking it's usual place on the woman's face.

"What sort of mission, Hayate-chan?" asked Vivio warily.

"Well, that's information your godmother needs to know too, so let's just tell you both at the same time," the woman said, beaming by that point.

The girl nodded and lead Hayate to the living room where Fate was still sitting on the couch watching the news. The brown haired woman vaulted over the couch and landed next to Fate, causing the blonde to jump.

"Don't do that, Hayate-chan!" Fate yelled.

"No promises," Hayate sang.

Rolling her eyes, Fate turned her attention to Vivio, who had taken a seat on the other side of Hayate. "Why did you have to let her in?"

"'I'm evil," Vivio stated, giggling. "What sort of mission where you talking about?"

Hayate waited for Fate's raised eyebrow to drop the first bombshell. "Lotte discovered a magic society on Earth."

"It's about time," Fate said, smirking. "What's it like?"

The look on Hayate's face said that Fate's reaction wasn't quite the reaction Hayate was looking for. If there were any doubts, her next line confirmed it. "You mean you're not surprised?"

"Two of the most powerful and influential members of the TSAB were born on Earth. Three if one counts you." Hayate stuck her tongue out at her. "That couldn't have just come out of nowhere. If you wanted somebody to be shocked by the news, go to Nanoha."

"I'll get to it. Now, I don't know the politics of the land, but I can tell you what Lotte and Rein have learned about the world, if you want to hear it."

"That would be nice, Hayate."

"Well then. For every country on Earth there's a counterpart government that governs the magical population. From what we can tell, the general population doesn't know much about 'muggle,' or non-magical society and technology. They fear the muggles will start a war with them if they learned about magic, so they use a spell to erase the memories of any of them who see magic being preformed unless they have an immediate family member who can use it."

"That's not good," Fate muttered. "I don't think they'd be very interested in our help."

"We won't know until we try," Hayate retaliated. "And besides, if it's too bad there the TSAB would have to intervene for the good of those who can't use magic. The higher ups aren't too fond of that type of ideology, especially those without magic themselves."

Fate nodded. "Then count me in. Earth may as well be my home, so I'd be happy to help convert it to an Administered World. Heck, even an Allied World would be great. I'm sure Nanoha'd be happy to help, too."

"And Vivio?" Hayate asked, turning her attention to the girl.

"Sure!" the girl beamed.

"Why Vivio?" Fate frowned.

"Well, the best magic school on the world admits children at the age of eleven, which Vivio is. The school starts soon, and I figured it'd be good learning to have somebody in there interacting with the students as an equal. You can learn a lot about a society by it's youth. Not everything, but hey."

"But still; why Vivio? Why not an eleven year old who's signed up to work with the TSAB already?"

"There are many reasons," Hayate said, smile broadening. "One of which is that Vivio wants to learn all forms of magic, last time I checked."

That was true enough. Even though Vivio'd settled with knowing Modern Belkan Strike Arts with some Mid-Childan Shooting Arts mixed in didn't mean she didn't want to learn everything else. Heck, her learning Strike Arts was supposed to be just a thing she did because she wanted to know a bit about all forms of magic. Before that she used solely Shooting Arts.

"The other reason is that they utilize a branch of Chaos Magic. We call it Terran Magic now." Hayate's grin could rival the Cheshire Cat's.

"WHAT?"

"Chaos magic?" Vivio asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Magic too chaotic to be controlled, or at least that's the theory. Really it's just a mutation in the Linker Core that we just don't know what to do with. About a good 50 percent of the non-magic population have Chaos Cores. We have to put limiters on them so they don't blow something up. Of those we think that about 25 percent are compatible with Terran Magic, give or take."

Fate just stared at her for a moment before shaking her head. "This is one of your stupid ideas of a joke, isn't it?"

"Because I could totally get your brother in on one of those," Hayate sang. "Bardiche?"

||Sir, we have indeed received mission data.|| Bardiche-Fate's device-said in it's near-emotionless voice.

Fate read through the data after thanking Bardiche, and the next hour was spent by her and Hayate going over the mission. From what Vivio absorbed of it, the mission would be mostly an intelligence gathering one with some aspects of seeing what they could do to recruit Earth into the TSAB.

It was at that point in the conversation when Nanoha joined in. Once she was told what they were talking about she fell in a dead faint, which is about the last reaction any of the three expected from her. After reviving her and bringing her up to date, the conversation continued about what they currently knew about the society, and remained about that until Vivio piped up.

"I should probably go tell my friends I'll be gone for a while," Vivio said, frowning. She truthfully didn't really think of her friends when making the decision to go, as bad as that made her feel.

Fate frowned. Evidentially she hadn't thought of Vivio's friends either. "That would probably be for the best. I don't want you to lose a friendship over a mission."

And so Vivio made sure to go to her friends before the mission was finalized, and was surprised at just how positive they were about her going.

Rio had all but pushed Vivio towards going on the mission. She knew how much Vivio hated living in the shadow of what her "ancestor" had done, and that this was a chance for the girl to really make a name for herself. She'd said as much. Corona agreed wholeheartedly to this, even reminding Vivio that they could just talk through telepathy any time they felt like it. It was Einhard's reaction that really got to Vivio, though.

She offered to go too.

Vivio at first objected, saying that Einhard didn't have to do that for her. She promptly shut up when Einhard told her that she was just as interested in the new form of magic as Vivio or anybody else was, and wanted to experience it first hand. When Vivio stated that they used Chaos Magic and Einhard didn't, she pointed out that her ancestors' Linker Core was experimented on to the point where she wouldn't be surprised if she could use all forms of magic, as was Vivio's.

Hayate had been more than happy to include Einhard into the mission, although she'd be going to another school than Vivio. Neither was really bothered by that, though. While Vivio would be going to Hogwarts, Einhard would be going to a school in Japan. Nanoha argued that Vivio should go to the Japanese school instead, but once Einhard learned that Hogwarts was the better school she practically forced Vivio to go there.

Vivio's life then went on as usual for the next few weeks while the plan was being finalized, until the TSAB made their first official contact with the wizarding world; with the headmaster of the school Vivio would be attending.

* * *

A/N-I don't like how this chapter came out, but can't find the inclination to really change or add anything. Nothing really happens, after all. A prologue by any other name...

The next ones will be better.


	2. Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: Remember people, I own none of the character or the worlds, because yes there are more than one.

* * *

Diagon Alley

Vivio and Fate followed Lotte's feline form through the streets of London, and Vivio braced herself for what she knew was coming. The first contact with a new society was always the most nerve wracking, and knowing it didn't help. She didn't know how Fate did it all the time.

;;Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron!;; Lotte shouted through the telepathic connection. Both of the cat's audience could imagine her doing some over the top arm gestures as she said that. ;;Before we enter I must warn you that the people within are eccentric and traditional. I can't tell you what this Albus Dumbledore will be like, but I'd guess he's at least one of those.;;

Both clones nodded their heads at the cat's words. When they contacted the Headmaster of Hogwarts to enroll Vivio they'd used the standard cover story of being a secret society interested in sharing their knowledge with the world at large, but only if they decided it was safe to give it to them. Dumbledore had responded quite positively to this idea, so he probably wasn't the most traditional person they'd encounter.

And if the parchment had various designs printed on the boarder was any indication, he would certainly be one of the more eccentric.

At least, this is what they hoped.

The moment they stepped into the pub Lotte was back in her human form, and it was surreal to see that nobody even batted an eye towards her. They knew that she'd become a sort of regular, so most of the other regulars were used to her, but they were still too used to the idea of there being no magic on Earth.

;;Where is he?;; Vivio asked.

;;If the parchment is anything to go by, I would assume he's the elderly guy in the bright purple and green robes.;; Lotte smirked, pointing to the man with her thumb.

The two clones' eyes slowly drifted onto the man, and the collective mirth of the group raised a few levels. They were certainly right about the eccentric part.

"Albus Dumbledore?" Fate asked, walking over to the man.

"That's me," he smiled, then motioned to the seats around the table. "Sit down, sit down. We have a lot to talk about after all."

The three were happy to follow the man's request, and when they did he took what looked like a carved stick out of his pocked and began waving it around. It was strange for Vivio to see, but a look of understanding crossed Fate and Lotte's faces.

/Barrier detected, sir./ The device's near-emotionless tone rang in their heads.

Fate didn't look surprised. ;;Dangerous?;;

/Unknown. Doubtful./

;;What would you say his rank is?;; Vivio asked with a genuine interest.

There was a moment before Bardiche spoke. /SS Rank./

The three fell silent. He was one of the two artificial ranks. Anybody of SS or SSS rank had to be either boosted by a Lost Logia or genetic alteration, because that level of power didn't occur naturally. The man that sat in front of them didn't look like the sort of person who would willingly use a Lost Logia or genetically alter himself, but the idea still made them wary.

"There," the man stated as he put his wand away, "nobody should be able to overhear us now." The man's twinkling blue eyes rested upon them, before his eyebrows shot up. "Whatever is the matter?"

Fate took a moment to think of how to proceed before responding. "You caught us off guard. We sensed the magic around us and since we didn't know what you were doing..."

"Ah, yes, I suppose that makes sense. However," the headmaster smiled, "that would mean you can sense magic. A rare skill indeed."

Fate smiled as well. "It may be rare to you, but to us it's a common ability. It's one of the things that we could teach you if we chose to."

That was true, Vivio knew. Before the mission started the girl was put through a few small lessons to learn the basics about Chaos Magic as a whole. While people with Chaos Cores couldn't use Mid-Childan or Belkan spells, they could do some other things all the same. Sensing magic and telepathy were two such things, as they did more with the mind than magic, only using one's magic as a sort of power source.

"I am eager to see what else you know, then. If I may, how long do you think it could take before you come to a decision on our society?"

"Years," Fate said bluntly. "We want to be absolutely sure that nothing we give you will be used for the wrong reasons, you understand. We've seen enough wars to be cautious about that."

"Very good," Albus said, smiling. He took an envelope out of his pocked and slid it across the table to Vivio. "You will be needing this."

Vivio took the letter and noticed first, with amusement, that the envelope was addressed to her in this very pub. The letter inside had a simple invitation to go to the school, and the other side had a list of things to buy for the year. Vivio raised an eyebrow at some of the strange things on the list.

When Fate took a look at the list she smirked. "I see the stories about wizards aren't just stories, then."

Albus chuckled. "Most are, but they're certainly based on the real thing. I wouldn't assume we could do something because it happened in those stories, as they're mostly fiction. Our society hasn't changed much since back then, so I can see how you'd make the connection."

"How welcome do you believe we will be if nothing changes much?" Fate asked, frowning. They already had an assumption of this that they were working on, but hearing it from somebody who lived there would make it more real.

"As of this moment, not very." Albus said, confirming what they already guessed at. "However, things have indeed been changing recently. I do ask you to watch our society for a few years before writing us off as a lost cause."

Fate stared at the man for a few moments before her mouth twitched upwards. "If there are more people like you in it then I think we may have a chance."

"I'm glad to hear you think that," Albus said, smiling sadly, "but while there are they are not the ones in power. You see, the ones who are in charge don't want anything to change, because they see the unknown as a threat to their power. It's not different in many other countries, and those where it is are bound by treaties."

"There are international treaties to stop advancements in society?" At the man's nod, Fate started rubbing her temples. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"But let's drop this train of thought for now. This isn't the time for politics," the headmaster said with a smile, "Our groundskeeper is going to arrive soon with another first year. When he arrives I will personally take both of you to get your things for school." He turned his smile towards Fate and Lotte. "Needless to say, you two are welcome to join us."

"Thank you," Fate smiled.

"Think nothing of it," Albus said. "Now, there's something you should know about the boy..."

* * *

This was the best day of Harry's life. Heck, the whole weak may have been one of his best. Watching his aunt and uncle panicking and running around as hundreds of letters rained upon their heads was hilarious, even if wasn't at the time. Then Hagrid showed up and put the icing on the cake by taking Harry away from them; to a world of magic, no less.

"This is it," said Hagrid as he came to a stop, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."

Harry looked at the grubby-looking pub and frowned. He always imagined that famous places would look really well kept and not be ignored by everybody around it, but then again, what did he know? He didn't have any experience being famous, though he recently discovered that he was.

When they entered the building they were greeted by a man who was quite bald and, if Harry had any say in the matter, looked like a toothless walnut. The smile he gave was unnerving as a result. "The usual, Hagrid?"

"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," Hagrid said, clapping his hand on Harry's shoulder hard enough to make the boy's knees buckle.

Harry felt a strange sort of heat over his scar the moment before Tom's eyes turned to him. "Finally got a promotion, Hagrid? Congratulations."

"No promotion for me, Tom," Hagrid said, laughing slightly. "Just a special case, this one."

Before Tom could start inquiring as to why Harry was so special, the conversation was interrupted by a man who looked only slightly younger than the barkeep, whose blue eyes sparkled as they examined Harry. The man took Tom aside and whatever the barkeep was told made his face light up. He nodded respectfully towards Harry and went on with his own business.

"I can handle things from here, Hagrid," the older man said with a smile.

"Alright, Headmaster. I'll just go run some errands, then," Hagrid said, departing from the two.

"Well, Harry, I take it you've never had a birthday like this before?" the man joked. "Ah, but where are my manners? I'm Albus Dumbledore."

"It's good to meet you, sir," Harry said respectfully.

"Likewise," Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling brighter than they were before.

"That's him?" asked a girl around Harry's age with bright eyes, one red and one green.

"Why yes, Vivio," the man said, motioning her towards him.

The two exchanged greetings and Harry had to play with the girl's name a bit to get it right. Vivio Takamachi wasn't the easiest name to leave Harry's mouth, but he got it down quickly enough.

"So it's your birthday?" Vivio asked. When Harry nodded the affirmative a goofy smile lit up the girl's face. "Happy birthday!"

"I-thanks?" Harry said, face reddening as Vivio giggled.

"You sound like you've never been wished a happy birthday before," the girl teased. She stopped giggling altogether when Harry turned his gaze to the ground. "You have been wished a happy birthday before, right?"

"Of course!" he said, before adding at the bottom of his breath, "once."

Vivio seemed to have heard him and looked devastated, but before she could pursue the matter Dumbledore told them that they should head to Diagon Alley. Vivio sighed and gave Harry a sad smile before running over to a woman with blond hair and red eyes that matched Vivio's left, who Harry assumed was her mother, and they just stared at each other. By the way the woman's face darkened, Harry got the impression they were communicating with each other somehow.

Their attention was diverted when Dumbledore tapped his wand against a brick wall in a counter-clockwise motion and it opened up, letting them onto a busy street filled with people. From the look on Vivio's face Harry knew that she found the sight to be amazing, and he was inclined to agree with her.

"Well, our first stop should be to Gringotts, I think?" Dumbledore said brightly.

Vivio tilted her head to the side. "And that would be..."

"It's the wizarding bank," Harry answered.

"Very good, Harry," Dumbledore smiled.

"Hagrid told me this morning," Harry said, still looking pleased at the praise. His head jerked in Vivio's direction and his eyebrow raised at the girl's giggle.

"Not the best at taking a compliment, are you?"

"I'm sorry," Harry muttered, looking away from the girl. Vivio's giggling ceased again.

"Albus," the blond haired woman said, her voice brimming with conviction, "we need to talk."

"Oh? Whatever about?" the man asked, frowning.

Harry looked up to see the woman staring intently at him, and he once again turned his gaze away. Vivio grabbed his hand reassuringly and smiled sadly at him.

Whatever talk the woman (Vivio's godmother, Fate, Harry'd been told) wanted to have was not discussed before they arrived at Gringotts. Once there, Fate exchanged a load of muggle money for wizarding currency. Fate muttered how they made no sense after Dumbledore explained it to her, and Vivio agreed loudly. Both Dumbledore and Harry laughed at her antics while Fate was mortified.

After that display, Vivio and Harry were sent down to Harry's vault while Fate and Dumbledore stayed behind. Harry got the feeling that the aforementioned talk would be taking place then, and he also had a sinking feeling he knew what it was about, and he didn't like it. He didn't want there to be any problems caused by his relatives.

When they arrived at Harry's vault those thoughts were expelled form his mind his jaw dropped to the ground.

"This can't be mine," the boy croaked.

"I can assure you it is," the goblin said dryly, "and I can also assure you that I don't have all the time in the world, so I'd be grateful if you could hurry up and get what you need."

Vivio complained about the goblin treating Harry like that as he walked over to the golden coins and let them run through his open fingers, making sure they were real. When Vivio told him to take as much as he could pocket Harry did just that. He just didn't plan to waste much of it, but he didn't know how much he would need.

When they arrived back at the lobby Dumbledore's eyes were completely devoid of their previous sparkles. Still, the man did his best to act jovial in front of the children, but Harry could see right through it.

* * *

Vivio was really interested in all the shops in Diagon Alley. Their first stop was a store called Madam Malkin's. It was there where they bought their school robes, which was the uniform. There was also a hat on the list, but Dumbledore told her that it had become optional in recent years because no muggleborn could take it seriously. Vivio thought they were crazy; her inability to take it seriously was why she bought it.

Inspired by the headmaster she also ordered specialized robes that were yellow with pink lightning bolt patterns on it, and was pleased that Fate started suffering from the sort of shy speechlessness that only Vivio could elicit from her.

Vivio managed to persuade Harry to get his own set of robes that wasn't for school, too. He picked out one that was red with basic gold patterns; the color of the house the headmaster said Harry's parents were in when they went to Hogwarts. Vivio made him wear the robes as his "muggle clothes" were much to large, dirty and generally unkept for continued wear.

Honestly, Vivio was worried about what Harry's home life was like. She never met somebody who was being abused, but she was sure Harry would be the first of them. She'd seen pictures of Caro, Erio and Fate as children, and the look in their eyes were similar to what she saw in Harry's. The "once" comment left very little doubt in Vivio's mind.

She also knew about Harry's past, which the headmaster had filled them in on before he arrived. Vivio could hardly believe that Harry was famous. He was too shy for that, she thought. His aunt should have known about the wizarding world if his mother was a witch, so there was no reason for Harry to just be learning about it unless that bit of information was being kept from him.

Their next stop was Scribbulus Writing Implements, where they got their writing quills and ink. Vivio bought a set of quills that would make the most efficient use of ink and blue ink that matched her barrier jacket, in a bottle that was magically enlarged inside to hold much more ink than one would expect. Harry just got plain quills and black ink.

The next several stops were the same; Vivio buying her favorites of the choices while Harry bought the least expensive that would work for the school year. It wasn't until they arrived at Tyluki's Terrific Trunks that he gave in again, buying a trunk with three different compartments as opposed to Vivio's six (with the sixth being an empty library). Dumbledore was kind enough to charm them to be featherlight himself.

When they arrived at Flourish and Blotts Harry didn't buy many books other than what was necessary. Vivio, however, ran into the bookstore almost immediately, and soon was wandering through it hardly able to see in front of the stack of books she was carrying in her arms.

"You know they have enchanted bags that will fit all that, right?" an amused voice spoke.

Vivio turned to look at the brown haired girl whose blue eyes, residing behind glasses, were staring at her in amusement, eyebrows up somewhere in her hairline, and hand holding out one of said bags to the target of her amusement. She didn't look to be that mean, just amused that Vivio had been carting the books around herself. Vivio couldn't blame her, really. It was probably a standard thing in the wizarding world.

"Thank you," Vivio said, smiling gratefully at the girl. "I'm Vivio Takamachi."

"Daphne Greengrass," the other girl said with a nod, before turning off to return to her own devices with her head in a book she was presumably reading before the conversation.

"Wait!" Vivio called, sending the girl's eyebrow back up. "Do you know any good books?"

"'Do I know any good books?'" the girl said in an imitation of Vivio's voice. "Just tell me what you're looking for."

The next several minutes were spent with Vivio putting books back and picking other books up. Daphne, as it happened, was a bit of a bookworm. She was friendly too, if not a bit sarcastic. Vivio found that she could appreciate most of the sarcasm, so it wasn't a problem.

"Also," Vivio piped up hopefully, "my friend can turn into a cat. Is there any way I can learn to do that?"

"Of course," Daphne said, causing a bright smile to form on Vivio's face. "It's not the easiest thing to do, but there are books you can read about Animagi."

Vivio was the happiest girl ever for that moment. The only non-familiar that could turn into an animal was Yuuno and his ferret form, which he gained when arriving on Earth. It made sense to Vivio that Terran Magic would allow her to do the same thing, when she thought about it.

Daphne handed Vivio three books on the subject, and they were the last the cloned mage bought simply because nothing else caught her interests after that. She bid farewell to Daphne before paying for all the books, finding that Harry did so a while beforehand. Vivio tossed the books into the library compartment in her trunk to be sorted later, and the party of four and one cat set off to go to the last stop of the day.

Ollivander's Wand Shop was the most important shop in wizarding Britain because it was where people got the ability to use their magic. That didn't stop the owner of the shop from being one of the creepiest people Vivio had ever met, nor one of the least tactful.

Still, the buying of Vivio's wand wasn't too unpleasant an experience. She tried quite a few wands before she finally found her own; a ten and a half inch long alder wand with a dragon heartstring core. Vivo didn't know what any of that meant, but she could feel her magic flowing through it, so she knew it was right for her.

Harry's wand was a bit of a fiasco, though. An eleven inch holly wand with a phoenix feather core. Not from just any phoenix feather, though; one from the same phoenix who gave the feather that was used as the core of the person's who killed Harry's parents. Fate was glaring daggers at the man as he went on and on about that, and Vivio thew the money for the wand at Ollivander's face.

* * *

Lunch was a rather subdued affair for that sole fact that nobody knew what to say to Harry. It didn't really lighten up until Fate left to talk to her brother about something. Mere second after that the cat that had been traveling with them jumped onto the seat and morphed into a human who had no problems with eating the food Fate left behind.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked her, eyes wide.

"I...can't really explain it," the woman said, frowning thoughtfully. "I mean, I always could."

Harry frowned. Being able to turn into an animal seemed like a useful ability. When he turned to Vivio she was beaming at him, eyes sparkling like Dumbledore's when they met.

;;I bought several books to learn how to turn into an animal. If you want I could let you borrow one when I'm done reading them,;; Vivio's voice rang out inside of Harry's head. It was different than a thought, though, and Harry tried to send back a message in the same manner.

;;That would be great,;; was all it took to get Vivio grinning from ear to ear.

;;Great!;; the girl said, turning and starting another conversation with the cat girl and Dumbledore. ;;I'm looking forward to this year.;;

Harry smiled slightly at how eager the girl sounded. ;;So am I.;;

As the conversation went on Harry got good enough at the telepathy that he could take part in the conversation with the two adults while still having his conversation with just Vivio in his head, although not nearly as seamlessly as she managed. The girl told him that there was a lot more he could do with telepathy, and that she would teach him. Harry eagerly accepted her offer.

;;By the way, how much did my wand cost?;; Harry asked.

;;Does it matter, Harry?;; Vivio asked with a smile. ;;It's a birthday present, and you aren't supposed to care how much your birthday presents costs.;;

;;Are you sure?;; Harry asked, surprised. ;;I don't want you to waste your money on me when I could buy it myself.;;

;;Harry,;; Vivio's voice came across as a sigh. ;;Do you know how many people pick up telepathy as quickly as you have? Not a lot of them! The Aces did, as do other people who are at the same level as them, and that's it! You, Harry, are going to be a great wizard, and you have to remember that. People buying things for you is only a waste of money if you don't want it.;; Vivio smiled. ;;And you're my friend, Harry, which means I don't need a reason to buy anything for you.;;

Harry didn't know what to say. That was the highest praise he'd ever received, as well as the most sincere. Vivio seemed to know he needed time to digest what was just said to him, so she turned to the conversation with the adults.

"So," Vivio said after a while. "I'm gonna go see if my robes are finished. Wanna come with me, Harry? I wanna see what other weird things they have around here."

Harry nodded. He didn't particularly want to, but if Vivio did he wouldn't hold her back. She was his friend, after all.

When they returned to Madame Malkin's, Vivio's robes were indeed done, and she changed into them. The robes were a lot less bright than Harry thought they would be, to his relief; he didn't want to be blinded whenever he looked at Vivio. They then wandered around Diagon Alley for a big window-shopping when they ran into Hagrid.

"'Arry! How're ya doing?"

"I'm okay, Hagrid," Harry said, smiling. "I've already got all my school stuff."

"Uh, sir-"

"Hagrid," the man said, smiling slightly.

"Vivio Takamachi," the girl said with a small bow before returning to her previous train of thought as if the introductions hadn't occurred; "why do you have an owl?"

Harry turned his attention to the snow white owl that Hagrid was carrying in a cage. It was a beautiful creature, and Harry knew they were used to carry the mail, but he couldn't think of why the man would have it with him.

"It's Harry's!" the man said, and laughed as he saw Vivio's look of confusion. "Right, muggleborn. Owls are how wizards communicate. Just tie a message to their leg and they'll fly it to whoever ye wanna get it."

"How do they know where to go?" the girl asked.

"Dunno," the giant shrugged. "They just do. Here ya go, 'Arry."

"Thank you," Harry said as he accepted the cage from the giant.

"'O course," Hagrid smiled before the headmaster gained his full attention. "Sir, there's somethin' we need ta talk about."

"Oh?" the headmaster mused as they went to the side and the older man started putting up privacy wards around the two.

"Well," Lotte said, "that was rude."

"I dunno Lotte," Vivio said, frowning thoughtfully, "whatever they're talking about seems pretty important."

"They could have at least excused themselves," Lotte said, sticking her tongue out at the two wizards.

"You're being rude too!" Vivio countered, and if Lotte had a way to counter that she didn't have the time, because Fate rejoined their group at that moment.

"You're supposed to stay in cat form for a reason, Lotte," Fate said in a mock-exasperated voice, before turning to Harry and smiling. "We're going to be leaving now, Harry. I want you to know that you're welcome to join us, if you want."

Harry's mind stalled. Get away from the Dursleys? There was no way Harry wasn't going to accept that offer. When his mind finally started working again he couldn't prevent the grin from spreading across his face.

"Sure," Harry said, then added, "if it's not too much of a problem."

"You don't need to worry about that," Fate said kindly. "The only problem will be convincing Albus it's for the best."

Without giving Harry time to say anything she walked over to Hagrid and Dumbledore, who seemed to have finished their conversation, and the latter put a privacy ward up around himself and Fate. From the look of the conversation, Dumbledore didn't like the idea, but Fate wasn't backing down.

"Is this normal?" Harry asked.

"Oh, very," Vivio said, staring at her godmother with admiration. "She's liberated lots of abused children! She's the legal guardian of two in particular, but most of them have family or friends that'll take them in." She smirked. "It'll be over soon."

True enough, after a few more seconds of discussion Dumbledore slumped back in defeat. Fate seemed hardly mollified by her victory, but put on her best smile as she addressed them.

"Well, now that we've come up to an agreement that we're both happy with," Fate said, and Harry didn't believe that for a moment, "let's get back to the Claudia."

"The Claudia?"

"You'll see, Harry," Vivio said, smile turning mischievous.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was having one of the worst days in his life. It had started out well, with Harry getting introduced to the Wizarding World and Albus having a meeting with a so-called secret society who claimed that they could teach the entire wizarding world a lot of new things about magic. He used a bit of passive legilimency on the three and learned that they were telling the truth. He was surprised when they didn't have any occlumency shields up, but he wasn't the sort to take advantage of the weakness.

When they arrived at Gringotts he and one of those from the society, Fate, had a conversation about Harry's home life. She said that she believed he was being abused, but Albus brushed that concern off. He had Arabella Figg watching over him, after all, and she'd contact Albus if there was anything wrong. The woman had sent a letter or two immediately after the boy was left there, but then they'd stopped. More would have certainly brought about his removal from the house, blood wards or no.

As the trip went on there were several more conversations of the like, each irking the old man more. The last was right at the end of the trip, where Albus had agreed to allow Harry to go with them for the rest of the summer. He could tell, even without occlumency, that she only had Harry's best interest at heart, so he was confident that no harm would come to him.

He immediately flooed to his office and pondered over what she had said. He knew that it was likely that he didn't have the best life there, sure, but there couldn't have been any abuse. He'd sent many muggleborn and half-blood children to live with their muggle relatives during the war, and set people nearby to keep an eye on them. From what he'd seen the system had worked; any cases of abuse were caught before they got out of hand.

Still, no matter how hard the man tried he couldn't get the woman's suspicions out of his head. He figured he'd settle the matter and flooed to Arabella's house. There Fate's suspicions had been confirmed, much to Albus' shame.

The woman said that she hadn't bothered to send any more letters because the situation hadn't improved. "If anything," she had said, "they'd gotten worse."

There were very few times Albus Dumbledore felt his age, and everything after that meeting was one of them. How had such a simple system broken down so terribly? The poor boy had slept in a cupboard! Albus nearly collapsed into his chair when he returned to his office, but that meeting had created a lot more work for the man.

Albus spent the rest of the day checking in with every watcher he had placed by the children, and learned that there were fortunately no more cases of a child being treated like Harry and remaining with their relatives. This didn't make Albus feel much better; he was especially fond of James and Lily Potter both during and after school, and the fact that he'd failed their son so badly would eat away at him for a long time. It didn't help that Albus felt responsible for the two's deaths, and Harry had the prophecy hanging over his head.

Albus then stopped at the Dursleys', and wasn't surprised in the least at both their fear and resentment towards him. When he confronted them about how they'd been treating Harry they got scared, but didn't seem to feel bad in the least. The most sickening part is just how happy they were when Albus told them they'd never have to take care of Harry again.

Albus then sent out an owl to set up the last meeting he'd need to make that day. He felt that the meeting was necessary in light of the events of the day. He only hoped he would be forgiven.

"Ah, Remus, it's a pleasure seeing you again," Albus smiled, sitting down at the table they agreed to meet at in the Leaky Cauldron. It had taken his owl a while to track the man down, truth be told. Being a werewolf, Remus Lupin had to move around a lot to get any form of income. It was rather disconcerting to the headmaster, really. Things like this were why he wanted Fate and her people to intervene so much.

"Likewise, Headmaster," the man smiled. He didn't really look to be in that good of shape. He looked tired, and his brown hair was more gray than it had been the last time Albus had seen him. In fact, Albus was sure that his hair wasn't the slightest bit gray back then.

"How has life been faring for you?" Albus asked, more to be polite than anything. Remus just snorted.

"Alright, I suppose. Just lost by third job this month. Easy enough to get a new one, I've got enough practice with it."

Albus smiled sadly. "That is, in fact, why I came to meet with you. I have a job I think you could..."

"Oh, not the Defense position," Remus groaned. "Albus, are you trying to kill me? I thought you already found a professor for the year."

"I did. Unfortunately, Quirinus has passed away in an attempted raid on Gringotts."

"Raid on Gringotts?! Albus, what kind of people are you hiring to teach students!?" Lupin said incredulously, and Albus allowed him to say every word. While Albus had no control in the matter, he did agree with his assessment.

"Unfortunately," Albus said with a frown, "they are the only ones who are willing to take the job. There are very few good people left to teach the subject."

"And you think I'm one of them," Lupin said, eyebrows raised.

"I do indeed," Albus said, deciding to move onto the other matter to be discussed that day, "and I also think you would be a great father figure for young Harry."

Lupin's comment was lost in his throat as he stared at the other man. Albus knew he had found or was close to finding the hidden message behind his words, and strengthened the privacy wards for when he fully processed it.

"You say that as if he hasn't had one before," came the response, which was less accusing than Albus thought it would be. Lupin went silent for a moment before looking up at Albus. "Albus, how's Harry been living for the past few years?"

Albus told him. The younger man's face betrayed every bit of pain and guilt he felt. The worst part of it, to Albus, was that he didn't seem angry with him. No, instead Remus seemed to blame himself for what happened to Harry.

"I should have checked in on him," Remus muttered quietly, though Albus managed to hear him regardless. "I shouldn't have been scared of hurting him."

"I don't quite agree with you. While I know you would never have intentionally hurt him, accidents could happen," Albus said. "You had Harry's best interest at heart, and I doubt he would hold that against you. He's out of their care now, at any rate."

"Thank Merlin," the young werewolf muttered.

The two men sat in silence for several minutes before Remus agreed to take the Defense position. Deciding that Remus would need all the time he could get to work on his lesson plans and, more importantly, fully stomach what he was told about Harry, Albus returned to his office and began musing over the little he knew about the group Fate and Vivio were a part of. Specifically, how Harry would fit in there, and whether that would be a good thing or not.

* * *

A/N - I honestly can say I'm surprised about how many people responded to the first chapter. Thank you all.

Can anybody tell me why Albus is always something like a D Rank in the crossovers while Harry is really high? I never got that. Also, I'm assuming you can guess what the Lost Logia that raised his rank was?

Oh, also, Harry was sorry when Vivio criticized him because he knows he's famous and a hero to her peers. He thought that he'd let her down.

BF110C4 - I agree with what you said, but I'm focusing on writing new chapters. I tried to change Chapter 1, but I ended up just breaking it. Oh well, it's not plot breaking or anything.

crazael - Using Vivio allows me a lot of freedom since the Nanoha universe doesn't go beyond that except for Force, which I know nothing about. From what I've read it's not that well liked?

jgkitarel - Vivio'll be taking a few pages out of all the Ace's books. And yes, she does know Starlight Breaker, but it doesn't work with her fighting style. As for Einhard's name and school; oh well and you'll see respectively.


	3. Days of Change

Disclaimer: Still don't own either series, people.

* * *

Days of Change

Harry's first thoughts upon waking up was that he was dreaming. He was in a comfortable bed in a room he'd never seen before. That was, admittedly, a rather common dream of his. Then the events of the previous day returned to him and he couldn't help but smile.

He got up and wandered over to his wand, handling it with care. It was his first real birthday present, bought for him by his first friend his age, and the thing he would use to control his magic. Getting it was, as far as Harry was concerned, one of the best things that ever happened to him.

Placing the wand down gently, Harry turned his attention to the other new things in the room. His trunk was sitting at the foot of his bed with all the things he would need for school inside of it. Atop it lie a TSAB uniform that was a bit large for him, but it was a much better fit than his cousin's clothes. It was also a symbol of another of the best things to ever happen to him.

He was officially a civilian collaborator of the TSAB as of the moment he stepped onboard the Claudia. Honestly, Harry thought that he got used to the idea of being a part of a multi-dimensional government quicker than he should have, but he didn't really care. It was real-they convinced him of that-and when Harry thought about it wasn't really any more outlandish than the existence of magic was.

His green eyes graced the clock in the room and was surprised to note that it was nearing noon. He'd never slept in that late, but then he'd always had to worry about chores and the like.

Feeling liberated-and he reminded himself that he was-Harry pulled his Charms book out of the trunk and began skimming through it. Even without paying much attention he could see a bunch of spells that he found interesting. He repeated the process with his other books, and found that the only one that bored him was his Herbology book.

It wasn't until a knock on his door interrupted him that he realized he'd been there for a bit less than an hour.

"Hey Harry!" Vivio said as the door was opened.

"Hey Vivio," he said. "What's up?"

"We're going back planet-side," she said, smiling, "and I wondered if you wanted to go with us?"

"Sure," Harry replied.

"Don't you care where we're going?" she asked. The girl examined him for a moment after he shrugged before grinning. "Okay, it'll be a surprise then! Get ready!"

Harry threw on his robes as soon as Vivio exited the room and found the girl waiting for him right outside. For the first time Harry noticed what he could only describe as a living stuffed rabbit that floated around her. When she saw he was ready she beamed, and the toy started floating around him.

"Harry, meet Chris," Vivio said with a smile, motioning to the plush who was currently doing an overdramatic stage bow in midair, "my device."

"Device?" Harry asked.

"Yep! Think of him as a sort of wand that doesn't look like a wand," she said brightly. She playfully hit herself atop the head at Harry's confused look. "He helps me control my magic."

"Why does he move?" Harry asked, getting punched by a toy fist in response.

"Because Mary got bored, I guess," Vivio said, smiling fondly, "and I wouldn't change him for the world."

Harry pondered telling Vivio that he didn't know who Mary was, but figured it would just be a distraction. There were more important things going on at the time, such as the trip to the planet's surface.

That idea would take some getting used to, Harry mused.

"So, are we going?" he asked.

"Right! I take it you don't remember the way to the teleporter room?" Vivio waited for Harry to shake his head to continue. "That's okay, you will eventually. Just follow me! Erio's already waiting for us."

In theory somebody could teleport out anywhere on the Claudia unless it was on lockdown, but the teleporters used their own power to teleport an individual, while doing it oneself used said person's own magic. So there was really no reason not to use the teleporters, especially since one had to use the teleporters to return to it.

But with how much magic Vivio had, she was just being lazy.

As the two wandered through the hallways of the Claudia, Harry had to think how strange it was that a battleship orbiting the moon was the most homey place he'd ever been to. Throughout the walk Vivio ran into several people she knew and introduced them to Harry, and they were all nice to him!

"Here we are!" Vivio called as they entered a room with several large half-open tubes in it. Vivio walked into one of them, which closed behind her and radiated a blue light. When it opened again it Vivio was gone.

"Do I really have to go in there?" Harry muttered, getting the side of his head kicked by Chris as a response. He supposed that meant yes.

With a sigh harry followed Vivio's lead and entered one of the tubes. For a moment his whole world was lit up blue before his normal vision returned, metallic walls replaced with a forest. Harry was sure that he feeling of being one place one moment and another the next would never be normal to him.

"You'll get used to it," Vivio said, and laughed at Harry's bewildered expression. "What, you think you're the only one? It took me several trips to get used to it."

"And if I remember right, you had a panic attack on the first," a tall boy with hair the same red as a fire truck laughed.

"Erio!" whined the mortified Vivio. "I was six!"

"I think it was your seventh birthday, actually," Erio corrected with a laugh before turning to Harry with an outstretched hand. "It's good to meet you, Harry."

"You too," Harry agreed, taking Erio's hand and shaking it weakly. He didn't know why, but there was something about the other boy that made Harry at ease around him.

"Well," Erio said as he broke the handshake, "I guess we'd better get going. We can be properly introduced as we walk."

As they walked through the forest Vivio couldn't help but to be reminded of the story her mamas told her about how they met. Vivio always found it ironic that Nanoha-mama and Fate-mama, the closest friends imaginable, met by Fate-mama attacking Nanoha-mama in the woods. With lightning. And if Vivio remembered right there was a giant cat involved somehow? Lost Logia were weird, Vivio decided.

After several minutes of walking and exiting the forest, the three came to a sign that read "Welcome to Hogsmeade!" in big letters. As they waked into the town, both Vivio and Harry were struck by how empty it was. There was a person here and there, but that was that. It was a far cry from Diagon Alley, they both thought.

"Why's this place so empty?" Vivio asked.

"I couldn't tell you," Erio said with a shrug. "From what I've seen they have a shop for everything you would need to go to Hogwarts, but I guess that Diagon Alley has more variety?"

It was Harry's turn to ask, "You've been here before?"

"Of course," Erio said, smiling in amusement. "Fate wanted to be sure that you'd be safe here without her."

"Isn't that why you're here, though?" Harry inquired as he stared at the various shops that lined the street.

"Yep," Erio laughed, "but Fate wouldn't be Fate if she wasn't protective of her kids."

"She even planned out Erio and Caro's first date," Vivio said with a smirk. "The whole thing!"

"Unfortunately somebody had to go and interrupt it," the boy in question said with a pointed look towards Vivio, who put on her best innocent expression, "and we had to spend the rest of the day fighting combat cyborgs."

"What are combat cyborgs?" Harry asked, causing Vivio to smile.

"You know what a cyborg is, right?" Harry nodded at Vivio's question. "Well, combat cyborgs are exactly what you think they are. They can do more than fight, don't worry! Subaru is one of the most gentle people I know."

"I don't think gentle's the right word," Erio snickered.

"Well, kind, then," Vivio said as her arms crossed. "I don't see what it matters?"

"She punches through walls, Vivio," Erio said, rolling his eyes. "I can hardly call anybody who does that gentle. I can see where you're coming from, though."

"And that's all that matters," Vivio said with an approving nod that made Erio snort. Looking at the bemused look on Harry's face, Vivio decided to turn the conversation to other topics. "So, Harry, I'm guessing there are a few thing you want to know about the TSAB..."

Most of the trip went by in a very similar manner. The three traded stories of training accidents, accidental magic and indeed things about the TSAB, including the fact that there were several incidents that the TSAB had to intervene in that took place on Earth. Harry filed that information away for later.

Unfortunately the trip was cut short when somebody recognized Harry, and Erio decided that it would be best to leave before the whole town knew that they were there. If the look on his face was any indication, Vivio knew they wouldn't have to worry about the fame going to Harry's head.

* * *

Harry felt better than he could ever remember feeling as he sat down at one of the dining tables. His aunt and uncle had hardly let him out of the house to work on the garden, let alone go anywhere with so many things at it. Being allowed to do so two days in a row was both amazing and, mostly because of that fiasco at the end, sort of tiring.

Even better than that, though, was that they never let him eat very much, and here he was having a virtual feast. He knew he probably had a bit too much food in front of him, but he couldn't help himself.

"You doing okay?" Vivio asked as she sat down.

"Great!" Harry said truthfully. "My aunt and uncle never took me anywhere."

"You don't have to talk about them," Vivio said, and Harry could tell that she was more uncomfortable about the topic than he was.

"It's fine," Harry said with a dismissive shrug. "It's not like I'm their son. I suppose it's a miracle they even took me in."

That statement struck Vivio like an actual blow. She had no living relatives who shared her blood, yet she still had a family that loved her and treated her as their own. The fact that his relatives not only treated him as terribly as they did but managed to make indifferent about it made Vivio want to punch them. She'd never understand how he could think that.

This also meant, however, that she had no idea how to handle this situation. A quick scan of the room showed that Fate wasn't around to help. There were a bunch of people in the room though, and the sight of her green haired rival getting her food reminded Vivio that she hadn't been introduced to Harry yet.

;;Hey Einhard!" Vivio called. ;;There's somebody I want you to meet!;;

The thirteen-year-old scanned the room, and when her eyes landed on Vivio and Harry a look of understanding crossed her eyes and she nodded at her best friend. As soon as her plate was full she made her way to the table and sat down on the other side of Vivio.

;;Hello,;; Einhard's meek voice rang through both eleven-year-olds' minds as the girl started eating. ;;It's good to meet you Harry.;;

;;Er,;; Harry looked to Vivio in confusion, and she just smiled at him. ;;It's good to meet you too, uh...;;

;;Einhard,;; she said, and a small giggle escaped at Harry's confused look. ;;It's my name.;;

Harry's mouth formed a small "oh" and he just sat there looking at the girl. He really couldn't think of anything to say to her, and it was became obvious that the feeling was mutual. Fortunately, Vivio knew just how to break the silence.

;;Hey Harry, remember how I said I was going to teach you how to use telepathy?;; Vivio asked rhetorically, and smiled at how Harry's eyes widened in surprise while he nodded. ;;Why don't we do that now?;;

;;Okay,;; Harry said, trying to be neutral without realizing that Vivio could still hear the excitement in his voice.

;;I can help,;; Einhard offered, earning herself a grateful smile from Vivio.

;;Well then,;; the red and green eyed girl said, thoughtful. ;;I guess we should start with starting a conversation?;; She turned to Einhard, who nodded. ;;Okay then. Now Harry, doing this is much harder than taking part in a conversation that somebody else has started.;;

;;Why's that?;; Harry asked.

;;Well, it takes a lot more concentration to start a conversation than to take part in it. If a conversation is started by somebody who doesn't know what they're doing the people in it may not be able to understand each other.;; Vivio said, then sighed. ;;The fact that me and Einhard speak a different language than you doesn't help.;;

;;Wait, what?;;

;;Yeah, we both speak Mid-Childan. Fortunately Chris,;; she motioned to one of her pockets, where the bunny stuck it's head out of, ;;and Tio,;; she motioned towards one of Einhard's, where a stuffed tiger stuck it's own head out of, ;;have built in translators.;;

Harry stared at his friend. It was weird to think that without her stuffed bunny Harry wouldn't be able to understand a word she said, but figured since she did have it the matter wasn't terribly important. He nodded slightly and prompted them to start with the lesson.

By the end of their session, which went well beyond the end of supper, Harry did manage to open a conversation, though everything that was said in it was choppy. By Vivio's estimate, which admittedly wasn't very good, he'd be able to start a good conversation with somebody in his immediate vicinity after three days.

That's where thing would get difficult without a device. Most mages relied on a device to do anything more than that, and those who didn't still did need one to learn it. There was no easy solution to that problem to their knowledge, so Vivio and Einhard decided to cross that bridge when they got to it.

* * *

Harry was up and in his TSAB uniform in time to make it to breakfast the next morning. He ate with Vivio and Einhard, who were happy to teach him more about telepathy while they talked quietly with each other about something else. How the two so easily had two conversations at once Harry would never understand. The girls had then gone off to do whatever while Harry chose to familiarize himself with the Claudia.

"Oi, Potter!"

Harry spun on his heels and found himself looking at a young girl-no older than nine-with red hair who was glaring at him. Harry would normally think that a glaring nine year old wouldn't be that scary, but there was something about her eyes that told him to take the glare seriously.

"Shamal wants to see you in the hospital wing," she said. "You know where it is?"

"N-No," Harry managed to say.

"Great," the girl muttered as she rubbed her temples. "Fine, follow me, Potter."

As they walked Harry wondered if every day on the Claudia was going to be like this. After all, he'd been dragged off by people two days in a row. It wasn't that he minded it, but he didn't even know who this girl was. Which reminded him...

"What's your name?"

"Vita," she said shortly, and that was the end of that.

The silent walk lead Harry to a room with clean white walls. There was a strange metal seat that looked like it was designed to be the most boring armchair ever. It also didn't look terribly comfortable, and Harry hoped he wouldn't have to sit in it. On a second sweep Harry couldn't help but to notice that there was nobody else in the room.

"Shamal! Potter's here!"

That call solved the latter issue. Mere moments after Vita called a woman with short blonde hair wearing a doctor's coat entered form a side room and smiled at Harry.

"Hello Harry," she said brightly, then turned to the boy's companion. "Thank you for your help, Vita."

"Yeah, whatever," she said, turning and walking from the room, waving over her shoulder. "Later."

Harry barely saw doctor Shamal roll her eyes at Vita's departure, but it was less that she was trying to hide and more that Harry wasn't paying too much attention. Without fanfare she summoned what appeared to be a floating screen made of energy and proceeded to ignore it's existence.

"Well, Harry," Shamal said kindly, "Fate insists that you should get a checkup, so here you are. Sit down," she motioned towards the chair, to Harry's dismay. "This won't take that long, I assure you."

Harry begrudgingly sat down on the chair, which was, to his relief, nowhere near as uncomfortable as he thought it would be. For several second Shamal finally interacted with the summoned screen, occasionally giggling as she did so.

"What's so funny?" Harry asked.

"Oh, just Fate," Shamal answered, shaking her head. "She can come up with some of the most absurd medical theories that I've ever read."

"What does she think's wrong with me?" Harry asked, causing Shamal to break into a full blown laugh.

"None of this, I'm sure," the doctor said. "She always fills out the files of the children she brings in with the most insane things. I have to preform their checkups sooner whenever she does that, you see."

Harry didn't quite understand, but brushed that off as being because he was new to the TSAB. There was, however, something that he did get; "So I'm okay?"

"Most likely," Shamal said with a smile. "Now sit still. This really won't take that long."

Harry nodded and gave Shamal a thumbs-up to tell her he was ready. She smiled reassuringly and held her palm out towards him. In front of his eyes a set of rings appear on the woman's fingers in a flash of green light.

"What's..."

"Shush," Shamal said, smiling. "I'll answer your questions after I'm done."

Harry nodded, and a moment later he was consumed with a light green light. It took him only a moment to notice a similar burning sensation that he did on his scar when he entered the Leaky Cauldron, only this time it was everywhere. He found that he could feel it much more clearly when he closed his eyes, and he did such. It didn't quite feel like being burned, though, because it wasn't either hot or unpleasant. If anything, Harry would say it was gentle.

Unfortunately for him, the sensation disappeared as quickly as it came, and he opened his eyes to see that Shamal's face had paled considerably. She was looking at something on the floating screen she'd summoned like she very much hoping that something else would pop up on it.

"What's the matter?" asked Harry, worried.

"It seems," Shamal said absentmindedly, "that Fate was right."

Which meant it wasn't anything good.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked with wide eyes.

"Well..." Harry could see that the doctor really didn't want to say anything. "I'm going to be honest with you. There's some sort of magical... thing in your head."

Harry blanched. She knew what it was, she was going to say it before she censured herself, which caused Harry to get only more nervous. That was practically a dead giveaway that it was something really bad.

"Harry, it's okay," Shamal said soothingly, having probably seen the panic on his face. "I'm going to find a way to get rid of it. I doubt this is a unique situation to you."

"Please," Harry pleaded.

Shamal turned to the screen again and began interacting with it quickly. Harry could see the contents of it changing regularly, but nothing on it seemed legible to the raven haired boy. After a few very long minutes the doctor ended her search with a sigh.

"I have ten potential ways to remove it," she said, causing Harry to sigh in relief. "I'm going to have to do a more intensive scan of it to find which is best, if that's okay with you?"

"Do it," Harry said. "I want it out."

"Okay then," she said, forcing a smiled onto her face. "Same rules as before."

Harry complied, and in a moment he felt the burning sensation of magic around and inside of his head. It was strange to feel the magic inside of him, but Harry also found it to be calming as well. He just sat there and felt the magic for the majority of the scan, and did his best to memorize the feeling.

The magic dragged him to something else, though. It was also magic, but the sensation it gave was different. It was a frigid sensation instead of a burning one, and was both more fierce and forceful than Shamal's magic. Harry was sure he could also sense some outright malice coming from it. Despite those things, Harry felt compelled to reach out and touch it.

That was as bad an idea as just about anybody could have guessed.

The moment Harry came into contact with the foreign magic it lashed out. Harry's head felt like it was about to split into two, and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, writhing in pain and clutching at his scar to the best of his abilities, just barely holding back the scream that was fighting to make itself known.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he could make out Shamal's panicked voice saying something, but he couldn't bring himself to care as his entire world went black.

* * *

Harry's absence for the next several hours was noticed by an increasingly nervous heterochromatic girl. His lack of response to any of Vivio's messages didn't help, nor did the fact that the people who seemed to know what was going on wouldn't tell her anything.

Fate had suggested Vivio go to the room which her and Einhard shared and calm down, but the only reason Vivio had done so because she didn't have an idea to where Harry could be.

;;Harry, are you okay?;; Vivio called again, and yet again the girl received no response.

"I'm sure he's fine, Vivio," Einhard said with a frown.

"Then why did he skip lunch?" Vivio asked. "I mean, you saw how much he ate for supper!"

"And breakfast," Einhard agreed. "I think he's sick."

When Vivio thought about it she had to admit that theory made sense. Anybody could have gotten sick from eating as much food as Harry had. Vivio felt a bit stupid for not having thought of that, but then there was something it didn't explain.

"Well, why isn't he responding to me?"

"Maybe he's sleeping," Einhard offered. "Sick people do that."

Vivio couldn't argue with that logic, either. She figured that if Harry was sick then Shamal would know about it. With that thought in mind, Vivio got up from her bed and out the door, a confused Einhard following close behind.

"Where're you going?" the blue and purple eyed girl asked.

"To see Shamal," Vivio said with conviction. "She'll know if Harry's sick or not."

Einhard nodded, and the two made their way through the hallways of the Claudia. For some reason Vivio found the hallways to be much more foreboding than she remembered.

"I wonder how Harry'd react to Mid," Einhard mused, causing Vivio to laugh.

"He'd be speechless," she said. "I mean, we have much more advanced technology than Earth. Not the mention the idea of people with and without magic living side-by-side seems to be foreign on Earth."

"It isn't in Japan," Einhard said. "They just aren't allowed."

"The treaties," Vivio half-asked half-whined.

"Yes," Einhard nodded. "It's hopeful, though."

"Yeah," Vivo agreed. "I still think Harry'd like Mid better than Earth."

"You're a bit biased, aren't you?" Einhard deadpanned.

Any further conversations came to an unexpected end when all the lights in the Claudia cut off, only to be replaced by dull red lights that just illuminated everything enough to see.

Vivio knew very little about how the Claudia worked, but she had enough common sense to know that everything being lit up red probably wasn't a good thing. Einhard seemed to realize this as well, and the two immediately went back-to-back with a defensive posture.

The next several seconds were some of the most silent and eerie that Vivio could remember, finally being broken when a purple orb of energy shot into the corridor from the direction of the medical wing and immediately charged straight at Vivio.

"Round Shield!" Vivio called, and a multicolored magical circle appeared in her hand in front of her, which was heavily damaged when the orb crashed into it. The orb came in for two more strikes before the shield gave out and Vivio was forced to dodge.

;;Incoming!;; Vivio shouted. Einhard immediately rolled out of the way of her assailant, if one could consider an orb of energy as such.

Not one to stay on the defensive, Vivio summoned a few Divine Shooter rounds and opened fire at the orb. They all hit their mark, but instead of doing any damage they were all absorbed, making the orb glow brighter.

;;Fools,;; the fierce, cold voice rang through Vivio's mind. If Einhard's gasp was any indication it was in hers as well. ;;Do you truly think a pair of children can best Lord Voldemort?;;

They were given no time to respond. The orb continued it's unrelenting assault, causing the two girls to be forced to focus on dodging. Vivio tried summoning another Round Shield, but that train of thought was immediately abandoned when the orb broke right through it, hardly slowing down as it did so.

;;What do we do?;; Vivio asked as she rolled out of the way of another attack.

;;I don't know,;; Einhard said, jumping over yet another strike. ;;I can't get a good opening.;;

;;Neither can I,;; Vivio admitted as she dodged yet another blow, but that action ended up being wholly unnecessary.

"Round Shield!"

A magic circle went up in front of where Vivio had been standing, and the orb only managed to make a few small cracks on it upon impact.

Seeming to realize that whoever casted that shield posed more of a threat to it than a pair of little girls, the orb chose to continue it's beeline from the medical wing as if it's fight with Vivio and Einhard had never happened.

"Chain Bind!"

Several magic circles appeared along the walls, floor and ceiling of the hallway which spewed out chains that surrounded the orb, tethering it to the spot. This only lasted around ten seconds until the chains were fully absorbed by the thing, which quickly hastened it's retreat.

Vivio, morale strengthened by the things's retreat, got ready to pursue it, but was stopped when a hand landed on her shoulder.

"Yuuno, it's getting away!" Vivio complained, and spun on her heels to glare at the blonde, ponytailed man. She was immediately struck by the serious look on the man's face, which made her forget about her glare altogether. She'd never seen him with a look like that before.

"It's not," he insisted, and Vivio was both relieved and not to note that his voice was nervous instead of angry. "I just told both Fate and Chrono which way it's going. It's as good as caught with them on it's tail."

"But-"

"Everything will be fine," Yuuno insisted, before turning an inquisitive eye towards Einhard. "What are you two doing here, anyway?"

"We thought Harry was sick," Vivio said frowning. "We wanted to see if Shamal had seen him or not."

Yuuno let out a barely suppressed snort. "I knew we should have just told you what was going on."

"Then you'll tell us?" Einhard asked. "What that thing was?"

"They'll probably say in the debriefing," Yuuno said with a lopsided grin. "I guess now we'll need to be there to tell them our part in this mess."

Vivio took one more look in the direction that the orb disappeared to. "Are you sure they'll catch it."

"Of course," said Yuuno. "Fate is a skilled Enforcer and so was Chrono when he was only fifteen. If they can't catch it I doubt anybody else could."

Yuuno was wrong about that; neither Chrono or Fate caught the thing, and as more reports came in it became clear that Yuuno had come the closest to doing so. Vivio threw him a "told you so" look, but since Chrono agreed with his decision the girl couldn't vocalize her thoughts.

Everybody on the Claudia was subjected to a test to see if the parasite had taken any of them as it's new host, with a resounding negative as a result. The prevalent theory was that the thing would die without a host, but Chrono was running the ship under the assumption it was still on it and very much alive. Vivio figured it was for security reasons, because it became clear to her that Chrono didn't actually believe it.

Vivio and Einhard had decided to keep the bit about that thing calling itself "Lord Voldemort" a secret from the rest of the crew until they could talk with Harry about it. Having heard his story, Vivio thought he should be the first one to know.

* * *

Harry's eyes flickered open and he spent the next several minutes staring up at the white ceiling of a room in the medical wing. He knew why he was there; he could never forget the pain that thing had put him through so easily.

He sat upright, wincing as the remnants of the headache came back to him. Scanning the room around him, he noticed various cabinets, desks and medical equipment lying around. As he looked down he saw that he was lying in a comfortable-looking bed, and perhaps more interestingly, Vivio was sitting in a chair next to it, using it to rest her head on.

"Vivio?" Harry asked, and when the girl didn't respond he nudged her shoulder. "Vivio?"

The girl lifted her head up slowly and looked around the room sleepily. In her defense, she had been watching over him for the past hour (last she checked; she didn't know how long she'd been asleep) and doing nothing for that long was terribly boring. When her eyes landed on Harry she stared at him for a full five seconds before her entire face lit up.

"You're up!" she practically squealed, pulling Harry into a tight hug.

"Y-yeah?" Harry half-asked. "How long have I been out?"

"Over a day," the girl said worriedly. "Apparently Shamal screwed up the diagnostic spell and that caused the thing to attack you..."

"She didn't do anything wrong," Harry said sheepishly. "I felt her magic and, well, it lead me to the thing..."

"You sensed her magic?" Vivio asked, eyes widening.

"And the thing," Harry nodded. "Why, am I not supposed to be able to do that?"

"As I said at Diagon Alley; you're going to be an amazing wizard," Vivio said as if that answered Harry's question. It kind of did, too. "Anyway, the stress of that combined with your core adjusting to your new magic kept you out for a while."

"New magic?"

"Yep!" Vivio said, smiling. "Apparently the parasite had a core with a rare skill, so Shamal drained it into yours, since there was no good reason to let it go to waste. They also thought that doing that would make it easier to deal with the thing after getting it out, but..." Vivio shrugged. "We really shouldn't have expected Chaos Magic to work like we expected it to, I guess."

"What happened?" Harry asked. He didn't miss the use of the word parasite, but with it gone Harry found he really didn't care what it was so much as what happened to it.

"I don't really know the specifics," Vivio said, having been waiting to tell the story,"but somehow the thing went wild. Fate was with Shamal when the thing was removed, but it just created a shell around itself with her magic and escaped. Me, Einhard and Yuuno fought it nearby, and it got away from us too. It also caught some cadets off guard and managed to knock a few of them out before being chased off. Chrono figured that sealing it would probably work, but it disappeared in the technology wing before he had a chance to try it out."

"And it's all my fault," Harry said, slumping down.

"Don't worry about it, Harry," Vivio said. "Chrono already said that everybody made their share of mistakes in dealing with it. Actually, you have the most reason for yours. You just learned about magic a few days ago."

"But still..."

"It's not your fault," Vivio said firmly. "You didn't know what you were getting into until it was too late, Harry."

"That doesn't matter," Harry sighed. "I'm supposed to be a hero. If anybody in the wizarding world learned about this, what would they think? You saw that guy in Hogsmeade."

That was at the heart of the issue, Vivio realized. She examined her raven haired friend and noticed for the first time just how weak he looked. Of course she knew he wasn't the most healthy person ever, but the look in his eyes emphasized that.

Vivio never wanted to see that look in his eyes ever again.

"Harry," Vivio said soothingly, "nobody expects you be perfect because of something that happened when you were one. If they do then they're stupid, and you shouldn't care what they think."

"What if everybody around me is stupid?" Harry asked, and Vivio was pleased to see that his mouth twitched upwards after that last word.

"Then you move to Mid-Childa," Vivio said, and smiled at Harry's amazed look. "There are some perks to being affiliated with the TSAB, and being able to literally drop off the face of the Earth is one of them."

"But then I'd be letting them down..."

"And you have every right to do just that," Vivio finished for him, then added, "if they're as stupid as you think they are."

Harry smiled at his friend. He knew her for only two days and yet she and everybody else on the Claudia were treating him better than anybody he'd ever known on Earth, with the exception of Hagrid and Dumbledore. He didn't know how to thank her, especially after she fought the thing he'd loosed on the Claudia.

"I need to make it up to you," he said, then added, "to all of you. I brought that thing here..."

"Harry," Vivio whined, "don't worry about it. The TSAB has had worse, and I'm sure that they'll continue to have worse. Besides, you're not the one who let it get free. It was Shamal's operation that did that, and that was only because she rushed to get it done."

"But still," Harry persisted, "she only rushed it because I got curious and ended up making it angry. If I wasn't an idiot she wouldn't have had to do that."

That was another thing about him, Vivio realized. She had to feel a bit of respect for her friend; the part he played in the fiasco was minimal, but he still felt as if he needed to make it up to them for the whole thing. That said good things about his character. Still, Vivio figured that thinking like that couldn't be the most healthy mindset.

"Harry, I'm a Takamachi," Vivio said, grinning from ear to ear. "We're never really good friends with people until they almost kill us."

Harry stared at her as if she grew a second head, which meant his mind was off of his guilt. She was reminded of the whole Voldemort thing, but if she told him about them he'd get depressed again. She decided to withhold that information until Harry was ready to hear it. Until then, she knew just the story that would prove her point.

"Well, you see, when Nanoha-mama and Fate-mama met there was this giant cat..."

* * *

A/N - So, I took some liberties with the horcrux, but I didn't want it to be removed just like that, and I couldn't think of a good excuse for the TSAB to not notice it. It's supposed to be hard to deal with, and it wasn't as if the TSAB were taking it as seriously as they should have. It's not that they weren't taking it seriously, but they are thinking of it as just a parasite, albeit a dangerous one.

Hakuryukou79 - I'm not thinking of pairings at this time. I mean, they're only eleven. And no, there will be no plot twists that allow Harry to learn Mid or Belkan magics. He's a wizard and that's that.

IveGotNoIdea - Oh, there are no arguments that Harry isn't powerful, I'm just curious why he's so much more powerful than Albus. The man may be old but from what we've seen he's still pretty good. Let's not forget how powerful some of his spells in the ministry were. I imagine animating that many statues to do different thing took a load of magic.

TheConstellation - Without the Elder Wand Albus certainly wouldn't be an SS Rank, I agree with that.

The GAR - Vivio sucker punching the Basilisk would be pretty great. I'll have to remember that.


	4. The Start of a Journey

Disclaimer: I still don't own the things, and that's never going to change.

* * *

The Start of a Journey

The rest of the summer passed by in a blur of training, trips to both Earth and Mid-Childa, and history lessons about Dimensional Space for Harry. Ever since the incident with the parasite the young wizard had decided he wanted to be as useful as possible as a sort of repayment. Vivio didn't agree with his reasoning, but she was supportive of his drive to improve himself.

The solution to his not having a device was so simple that both Vivio and Einhard felt stupid for ever thinking it was a problem. They simply had to enter him as a guess user for Sacred Heart and that was the end of that. The only downside was that Harry wouldn't have as much access to Chris once they arrived at Hogwarts.

So, seeing that the device didn't need to be able to work with a person's core to help them with telepathy, Vivio asked Fate if she could get Harry a simple device so that he could have easy contact with the TSAB while he was at Hogwarts, and Fate said that she'd see what she could do.

From Vivio's experience she knew that answer meant it was only a matter of time before it was done.

From his other training, Harry could sense his own magic flowing through his body and the magic of others should it make contact with him, but that was the extent of it. He was discouraged by this, but Vivio insisted that the ability would help his spell casting dramatically.

He hadn't been able to test that theory, though, because they weren't allowed to use their wands outside of the school. Instead, a woman named Mary took them for research, with the promise that she wouldn't tamper with them.

To hold himself over, Harry went through all of his books - and some of Vivio's - to make a list of spells that he was going to work on learning the moment he could use his wand. The books that interested both he and Vivio the most were the ones on animagi, which was a shared goal between the two.

To their dismay the books were really advanced, so they couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying. Still, there were a number of spells that Harry added to his list, most used to identify animagi.

From the several trips he'd been on, Harry decided that he liked Mid-Childa much more than he liked Earth, although that may have been because most trips to Europe ended early due to somebody recognizing him. He found that he didn't care quite as much what people thought about him unless it was somebody that he knew, much to Vivio's delight.

On Mid-Childa, Fate had bought a few things for Harry and wouldn't take no for an answer. The first thing was a pair of contact lenses that didn't need to be removed and would correct his vision as he wore them. Harry's jaw dropped when Vivio finally told him what the price of them would be in pounds, but it was too late to do anything about it. He also found himself with a new wardrobe, which consisted of mostly green, black, red and gold clothes. Once again, it was too late for Harry to do anything about it once he found out.

The history of Dimensional Space, in Harry's opinion, was incredibly interesting and grand. Almost nothing he learned about was contained to a single planet, and due to how advanced both Belka and the TSAB were, there were a number of recordings of each event in history, although there were few that they would show Harry.

His time with the TSAB had changed his life so much that he was actually disappointed when it came time to finally head off to Hogwarts.

* * *

Vivio sat on her trunk waiting for Harry to finish packing his own. For some reason he'd waited to the last second to do it, which was rather inconvenient. It was fine, though; Chrono was putting on a show of yelling at Cadet Summers for losing her device, and while Vivio felt bad for the other girl, it was always amusing watching Chrono yell.

;;Harry, are you ready yet?;; Vivio asked for what must have been the fifth time.

;;Almost,;; Harry laughed through the connection.

Vivio rolled her eyes and, when the show ended, climbed into the sixth compartment of her trunk.

The girl was glad to say that the library was much larger than she thought it would be, and Vivio was sure that if she hadn't worked in the Infinite Library she would have been impressed by the size of it. It wasn't close to being filled, even though Vivio transferred every book she owned into it.

She had ordered her books on different shelves according to what they were about, and then she ordered them in alphabetical order according to their names. Of course if somebody who spoke another language came in there it would seem as if there was no order whatsoever, but it made sense to Vivio and that was all that mattered. The girl couldn't really think of a good reason for somebody else to be in there other than Harry, and he was used to the disorder.

The next several minutes were spent checking to make sure all of the books were in their place, at which point she was called out by Harry.

"And you were complaining that I was taking forever," Harry joked as Vivio's head popped out of the chest.

"Oh, shush," Vivio said, sticking her tongue out at him. It had become much easier to talk to him over the summer, she found. "Are we going now?"

"Soon," Harry said, and Vivio noticed that he wasn't too excited about that.

"Harry? What's the matter?"

"It's just..." he stopped to think about what to say. "This is going to sound stupid."

"Just tell me, Harry," Vivio said kindly. "It's better to say these things than to keep brooding on them."

"Well, I don't know whether I'm going to like it there or not," Harry said. "I mean, the TSAB has been to great to me..."

"And you don't know if they will be," Vivio realized, and Harry nodded his head.

"I mean, I'm their hero. They're going to expect me to be better than I actually am," he said, frowning. "What will they do when they realize that?"

"I've already told you; they'll get over it," Vivio said, smiling. "If not I doubt Chrono would force you to go again next year, and we'd find a way for you to practice your magic anyway."

Harry smiled gratefully at her and the conversation moved onto lighter topics. They were on the topic of how football could be improved with magic when Fate told them it was time to go. Before they left, though, she pulled Harry to the side.

"Harry, this is yours," she said, holding out a strange card to him.

Harry examined the card and frowned. "What is it?"

"A simple device," Fate said, smiling at his look of awe. "You'll be able to use telepathy through it. It won't be able to do much more than that for you, but Mary's working on one that will. With how hard she's working on it I assume it'll be done before Christmas."

That was better than Harry was expecting. Really, he wasn't even expecting to get a device at all. He pocketed the card and returned to his conversation with Vivio as soon as he finished thanking Fate profusely.

The three used the teleporters and arrived in an empty alleyway in London where they met up with Aria, who returned Hedwig to Harry. They had left her with Admiral Graham because common sense dictated that outer space would be a terrible place for an owl to live. After a bit of small talk with the cat familiar they set off towards their destination.

It was as Vivio watched the snowy owl hotting appreciatively as Harry petted her on the head that a conversation she had with the raven haired boy came back to her, and she felt stupid for waiting so long to bring it up.

"Fate-mama, do you think it would be possible for Harry to turn Hedwig into a familiar?" Vivio asked, looking to Fate with a hopeful expression.

The boy had shown interest in the process since he learned Lotte was one of them, and later meeting Arf had only strengthened that desire. There were several logical reasons for him to do it, too. Owls were important in wizarding society, so having one that could teleport, turn into a human and not die of old age would be a great asset.

The real reason, though, was that if he did it she would be the closest thing to actual family he had.

"I'm afraid not," Fate said sadly. "To preform the ritual somebody has to use Mid-Childan or Belkan magic. You know that Harry can't."

"To preform the ritual, yeah," Vivio said, grinning. "But does the person who pours their magic into the animal have to be the same person to do that?"

There were two steps to the familiar creation process. During the first part the person sets up the ritual to allow magic to be poured into an animal safely so that they could create their own Linker Core from it, followed by the actual process of pouring their magic into said animal. To Vivio's knowledge there was never anything that said they needed to be preformed by the same person other than tradition.

Fate instantly began to answer, but then stopped to reconsider it. Both Harry and Vivio could see the woman scanning her mind for an answer to that question. It was almost a full minute before Fate spoke again.

"I have no idea," she admitted. "I'll have to ask Yuuno about it."

Both soon-to-be first years turned to each other and shared a grin. There was little doubt in Vivio's mind that it would work with two people. The only thing stopping them from going ahead and doing it was the small possibility that it wouldn't, and something would go terribly wrong. And lack of permission, but if Vivio was right, they'd just gotten that.

* * *

When the three arrived at Platform 9 3/4 Harry immediately vanished in the direction of the large crimson train to get an empty compartment. He still wasn't looking forward to all of his peers looking to him as some sort of role model, and was planning to avoid it as long as possible.

Vivio, however, was a social butterfly and not the Boy-Who-Lived, and was more than happy to wander around the platform and see what her peers were like. It was only a matter of minutes before she saw a familiar spectacled girl being bothered by what looked to be a smaller, not spectacled version of herself with shorter hair.

"Hi Daphne!" Vivio called, waving. The other girl looked almost relieved at the distraction.

"Hello, Vivio," she said calmly, ignoring the little her who seemed surprised at what was happening. "I take it you've been enjoying the books I've recommended?"

"Yep," Vivio said brightly.

"Wait, hold up," Mini-Daphne yelled, gaze shifting from Bigger-Daphne and Vivio so quickly it was hard to believe she was really looking at either of them. "You have friends, Daph?"

"Yes I have friends," Daphne said, sounding like this was something she said a lot. "You know Susan..."

"...and only Susan," Mini-Daphne said with a huff. "Why haven't I met any of your other friends?"

"Because I don't want you to chase them off, Tori," Daphne said with a smirk.

"I wouldn't do that," the girl named Tori wined, and stomped off in the other direction, muttering under her breath.

"Sisters," Daphne muttered, rolling her eyes. "Please forgive Astoria for interrupting. She's my little sister, and may as well be paid with how consistently she annoys me."

"Well, if you were a better lier - or better yet didn't lie to her at all! - then maybe she'd be nicer to you," a giggling girl with red hair said, walking over to the pair.

"It's hardly my fault the only other girl my parents let me be around is Parkinson," Daphne said, wrinkling her nose. "She hardly counts as a friend. I swear, if her family weren't so rich..."

"As I said, you should just let her know how you feel and be done with it," the redhead said before turning to Vivio. "So who's your friend here?"

"This is Vivio Takamachi," Daphne introduced. "Vivio, meet Susan Bones."

"It's good to meet you," Vivio said, smiling.

"Agreed," said the smiling Susan.

"I'm thinking we should find a compartment before the train starts to fill up," Daphne suggested, and the other girls agreed.

Since they were rather early it wasn't very hard to find one that was empty, and the three girls sat down in it and started talking about various things. Vivio was glad that when the two of them learned that Vivio was (supposedly) a muggleborn that neither of them really treated her differently, although Daphne did flinch at the word.

"So, what houses do you two think you're gong to be in," Susan asked eagerly.

"Please, Susan. I don't see any reason to answer that if you don't do it yourself," Daphne said, smirking at her friend.

"Well then, I plan on being sorted to Hufflepuff," Susan said,crossing her arms defiantly.

"Hufflepuff," Daphne said incredulously. "Why would you want to be in Hufflepuff?"

"Think about it Daphne," Susan said. "Hufflepuff is about being loyal and working hard. I don't know why everybody thinks the house is so bad."

That was the house that Vivio thought she'd end up in herself. From the amount of time she took part in mock battles and other such training exercises nobody could argue that she was lazy, and she was certainly loyal to her friends. There were other houses that she could fit in, but not as well as well as Hufflepuff.

"If you get sorted into Hufflepuff then I'm afraid we'll no longer be able to be friends," Daphne said, and Vivio noticed that the tone of voice that indicated she was being sarcastic was missing. There was a different tone instead; one that Vivio would come to recognize as sadness.

Susan looked like she was slapped. Seeing that she wasn't about to say anything more, Vivio decided to turn the topic over to Daphne, because she figured that Daphne had a good reason, and she wasn't going to pry. That didn't mean she was happy with the other girl, though.

"Where are you going to be sorted, then," the multi-colored eyed girl asked, more coldly than she would have liked.

"I'd like to be in Ravenclaw," the spectacled girl admitted, turning her eyes towards the ground, "but I'll be in Slytherin."

"Why'll you be in Slytherin," Vivio asked. "I mean, Ravenclaw's about being smart, right? And you know a lot about books, so I think you'd make a great Ravenclaw..."

"I'll probably be disowned if I'm not in Slytherin," Daphne said sadly, "and I probably won't be able to be friends with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs." She turned to Susan and smiled as best she could manage. "Do you really think I'd end our friendship over that if I had a choice in the matter?"

The whole compartment went silent. That seemed to be news to Susan, who stared at her friend with wide eyes. Vivio didn't think she could fully appreciate what was just said, not being from the wizarding world. Sure she knew what being disowned was, and it was for that reason that she was sure she wasn't appreciating it fully.

"Daphne, I didn't know," Susan said at last. "I mean, your parents seemed like such okay people..."

"They are quite good at putting on that act when they need to," Daphne granted.

There was another silence, and Vivio was starting to get uncomfortable. She didn't want to say anything because the conversation seemed rather personal, and she'd only take part if the conversation went in the direction she was worried it would.

Vivio instead used the moment of silence to think. If Daphne's parents would disown her for being in another house, they were obviously terrible parents. Different society or not, any parent who would disown their child for being in a different house than they were in school weren't fit to raise a child.

Really, wasn't Daphne being disowned simplifying the process of getting her away from those parents who weren't fit to raise her?

"I'm sure Aunt Amelia would take you in," Susan said at last.

"Are you sure?" Daphne asked, a flicker of hope shining in her eyes. It was gone as quickly as it came, though. "I don't doubt she would if she could, but what if something stopped her?"

"Well..." Susan said, turning her gaze towards the ground. "We could think of something..."

That wasn't a good enough answer for the spectacled girl, Vivio could tell. Daphne's eyes fell towards the ground, but Vivio managed to get a look at them just before they did so. She was so sad...

"My godmother could help," Vivio offered without a moment's hesitation. "I mean, helping children is practically her second job."

That comment was met with one of the most brilliant smiles Vivio had ever seen, coming from Susan. Daphne's response was more disconcerting; while the sadness in her eyes had disappeared, she was still clearly skeptical of the idea. That hope was back, though.

"So you think me being disowned would be a good thing," Daphne deadpanned.

"That's not what I meant! I just mean that you shouldn't let that stop you," Vivio corrected. "If you think Ravenclaw would be better for you then go for it, and don't let your parents stop you. It's your life after all, and any decision you make will have both good and bad consequences. You just have to keep looking for the good!"

"And what good could come from being disowned," Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing, but nothing good could come from being in Slytherin if you don't want to be," Vivio said, determined. "And out of the two places, where would you spend more time?"

Daphne sat there with her eyebrow raised for several seconds before understanding filled her face and she nodded. She needn't, though; her thoughts were broadcasted on her face. While she was incredibly nervous about the whole getting disowned thing, and hadn't made a decision yet, she was thinking of being sorted into Ravenclaw more than she had been.

"So yeah," Susan said, stealing the spotlight back from Vivio, "you'll be fine. I mean, I gather that you don't like your parents?"

"Not really," Daphne said, lips twitching upwards.

"And they're the only ones who will be angry at this," Susan said brightly. "Plus, you'd have been a terrible Slytherin, Daph."

"No I wouldn't have," Daphne said defensively, causing her friend to laugh.

"You aren't snaky enough, Daph," Susan said with a nod. "Plus, if you get into Slytherin you'd be roommates with Parkinson."

The spectacled girl merely shuddered theatrically, and in a moment all three girls in the compartment were laughing. Vivio would never laugh at somebody she didn't know who was, so it was Daphne's reaction that brought about her mirth. Really.

"So," Susan said when the laughing died down, "what house will you be in, Vivio?"

Vivio told them about how she'd probably end up in Hufflepuff, and was glad to see that Daphne wasn't bothered by it. Really, the whole idea that the house you're in would matter so much outside of it was absurd.

It was only a couple more minutes before the train started, and Vivio was surprised by just how quickly the compartment filled up. Many of them must have decided to hang out outside of the train until then, Vivio realized. A half-blood girl named Hannah Abbott joined the trio and was instantly welcomed.

Daphne seemed to find it apt to use every bit of the money her parents had given her to buy sweets, and by the time the four were finished eating they all felt sick. Fortunately one of the perfects, Percy Weasley, was able to cast a spell that made them all feel considerably better, which was how they learned they could use magic on the train.

The next several minutes were spent trying to cast simple spells. None of them really worked as intended, but none of them let that get them down. They were, after all, going to the school to learn to make the spells work. If they could do them that easily there would be no point.

When Vivio decided to pay attention to the magic flowing through her body as she casted a spell, she was surprised that the magic came out of her Linker Core a different way than her Mid and Belkan magics did. She couldn't think of a way to describe it, but it was neat nonetheless.

She had to wonder if it was the same for Harry, or if it was just her core being strange. With what she knew about her ancestor, it was most likely the latter.

When they were tired of that they decided to start talking about random things again. The conversation that stuck was Hannah and Vivio trying to describe the muggle world to the two pureblood girls to the best of their abilities, and Vivio found that there were a number of nasty misconceptions that she and Hannah tried their best correct, but a lot of what they said just confused the two purebloods.

Eventually one of the older girls mentioned that it was getting close to time they arrived at Hogwarts, and all the guys were unceremoniously tossed out of the compartment to allow the girls who needed to change to do so. Therefore, it would come as little surprise that all four girls were in high spirits when exiting the train.

* * *

Harry found that getting an empty compartment was much more difficult than he'd assumed; he had to change compartments several times before the train started moving. He'd made sure to cover his scar with his hair, but he didn't want to risk there being a lot of people around when his identity was discovered. He'd learned that there was no sure way to hide the scar but to avoid the people he didn't want to see it.

He'd finally settled on a compartment right near the back of it and slumped down in his seat. He was already tired of his fame and nobody other than Vivio even knew who he was yet.

It was only a few seconds after the train started moving that a boy with red hair around Harry's age entered the compartment and sat down next to Harry. The raven haired boy made no attempt to leave, figuring that he may as well try to make some more friends his age before everybody knew who he was.

"Anyone sitting there?" the redhead asked right as he sat down. "Everywhere else is full."

"Go for it," Harry said.

"What's your name?" the tall boy asked bluntly, causing Harry to snort.

"I think it's polite give your own name before asking for someone else's," Harry asked, and he sincerely wanted to now the answer. He was only given some small lessons on manners by Fate, but there was no way of knowing if they applied in the wizarding world. If the boy's reddening face was any indication, they most certainly did.

"I'm Ron Weasley," the boy said. "So, who are you?"

"Harry Potter," said boy answered, shifting uncomfortably at the shameless gawking being sent in his direction.

"Blimey," was all Ron could think to say. "Do you have..."

"The scar?" Harry offered, and Ron nodded.

With a bit of amusement Harry brushed his hair away from the lightning bolt scar, causing Ron to gawk even more. While he didn't like his fame - or the scar, anymore - Einhard and Vivio were quick to make him realize how silly it was for everybody to be so interested in a scar on an eleven-year-old boy's head.

Ron seemed to finally realize that he was gawking and turned his gaze away from Harry, who chose to turn the conversation over to Ron. He'd never met a wizard his age before, so he was just about as interested in Ron as the other way around.

"So, are your family magic?"

"Yeah," he said, demeanor turning glumly. "I have three brothers going to Hogwarts, and two already graduated."

"What's wrong with that?" Harry asked, causing Ron's ears to redden.

"It's not fun having so many siblings," Ron said bluntly. "Bill was Head Boy, Charlie was Quidditch Captain, and now Percy's a Perfect. Even Fred and George are pranksters and get high grades and everybody likes them. I'm expected to do as good as all them and when I do it doesn't matter because they did it first."

"So you feel like you need to live up to them," Harry said, not needing an answer. Ron didn't seem to pick up on that.

"Yeah," he said, turning his gaze to the ground. "I mean, even my little sister survived a dark wizard attack, so what is there left for me to do?"

Harry raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on that. After all, if he had a little sister who was attacked by a dark wizard, he was sure he wouldn't want to talk about it. "I'm in the same boat as you."

"Who do you need to live up to?" Ron asked, eyes wide. "I mean, you're the Boy-Who-Lived!"

"Myself," Harry said simply, and Ron stared at him blankly. "I mean, the magical world thinks I'm some sort of hero, right?"

"You stopped You-Know-Who, of course you're a bloody hero!"

"I've spent the last ten years living with my muggle relatives. They...really don't like magic, so I didn't even know it existed until a month ago," Harry said sheepishly. "There's really nothing special about me other than a scar on my forehead."

Harry could see that Ron was taken aback by that statement, and there was almost a whole minute of silence as the redhead digested it.

"So, you're no better than me?"

"Not in the slightest," Harry said, glad that the boy understood. "If anything, I'd say you have a head start over me."

"Blimey," the boy said, before turning thoughtful. "So you don't know about Quidditch, then?"

Harry's eyebrows shot into his hairline, and he tilted his head to the left slightly. The only time he'd ever heard the word before was when Ron said that his brother was the captain of it. He shook his head at last, and after a moment of shock was over Ron was eagerly explaining the game to Harry quite eagerly. Harry thought it quite interesting.

From that, Harry transitioned the conversation to the wizarding world in general. Ron was more than happy to tell Harry all about it, although Harry wasn't sure the other boy was being terribly objective about some of his "facts."

A little more an hour after the train started there was a small racket outside of the compartment, followed by the door opening up and a woman with a cart full of sweets walked in. Harry, realizing this was probably the closest thing to lunch they were going to get, got quite a few of them and managed to convince his new friend to trade one of his sandwiches for the right to take all the candy he wanted. Naturally, neither of them bothered with the sandwiches beyond that.

It was in this state of eating all the candy they could stomach that a round-faced boy entered the compartment.

"Have either of you seen a toad?" he asked quietly.

"Nope, sorry," Ron said.

"Oh, how do I keep losing him," the boy whined, scanning the room as if he would suddenly see the toad hiding somewhere it was never noticed being.

"Have you asked one of the older kids?" Harry asked. After all, if somebody had the ability to find a toad in a practically filled train it would be one of the older kids, because they could use magic.

"That's okay," the boy said sadly. "I should be able to find him by myself..."

"Nonsense, just go ask my brother Percy," Ron said with a roll of his eyes. "He'd be more than happy to help you; he's a perfect, after all."

"R-Really? Thank you!" the toadless boy said - surprising Harry at how quickly he changed his tune - and then exited the compartment.

"I don't see why he's so worked up over a toad. Embarrassing pet to have," Ron said, then sighed. "Not that I can talk. I would have Scabbers if he hadn't run away." At Harry's inquisitive look he laughed mirthlessly. "My older brother's pet rat. I wanted an owl but," he shrugged, "no money."

"So, your pet rat run away?" Harry asked, deciding to avoid the topic of the Weasley's alleged poverty, and get his friend's mind off of it.

"Yeah," Ron muttered, turning his gaze to the ground. "Must have been chased off when the dark wizard attacked my sister, because we haven't seen him since."

That wasn't much batter a topic to be on, Harry thought with an inward wince, and the conversation was replaced with an awkward silence. That didn't last long until a boy with light blonde hair entered the compartment with two others who resembled bodyguards.

"I heard the youngest Weasley was in this compartment," the boy said with a sneer.

"What do you want," the redhead asked coldly, causing the raven haired boy to raise his eyebrow.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear what happened to your sister," the blonde boy said, not sounding very sorry at all. "I mean, it must be terrible to know that she may never be able to use her wand hand again."

"Don't talk about her!" Ron yelled, jumping up from his seat.

"Oh, you want to fight, Weasley?" the ringleader laughed, motioning for the two bodyguards to get ready for a fight, which they did.

Fortunately, before anything could get too bad, the toadless boy - no longer toadless - returned with reinforcements. With him there was an older redhead with horn-rimmed glasses and a gold and red badge with a "P" on it, which Harry figured meant he was a perfect. Harry figured the boy was Percy Weasley.

"Is there a problem in here?" the older redhead asked, raising his eyebrow. Evidently he didn't hear the comment Malfoy made about his little sister.

"Of course not," the boy said quickly, looking at his goons who shakily nodded their agreement. "We were just leaving."

"Then by all means," the older redhead said, motioning to the door of the compartment. The three intruders were more than happy to leave, but not after throwing a glare in both Harry and Ron's direction.

"Now, was that really necessary, Ron?" Percy asked with a sigh.

"He was making fun of what happened to Ginny!" Ron shouted, dropping back into his seat with a loud thud.

A flash of anger crossed the older Weasley's eyes, but it was reined in quickly. Actually, Harry was sure something that may have in some way resembled a smirk crossed his features, but it was gone too quickly to tell.

"Even then, you shouldn't be starting fights over it. We perfects are here to deal with this kind of thing," he said pompously. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other prefect duties I need to attend to."

"What about the git," Ron demanded his brother, who rolled his eyes.

"I'll be sure to bring him up, now if you'll excuse me," he said, and exited the compartment without giving his little brother any time to speak on the matter.

"Ugh, he's such a prat," Ron shouted, throwing his arms up in the air in defeat.

"H-He's not really," the round faced boy said, and both Ron and Harry jumped, having forgotten he was there. "I mean, he helped me find Trevor..."

"Of course, he has to be the best perfect of the year, so he has to do things like that," Ron answer, shaking his head.

"Oh, well then," the formerly toadless boy said, shifting uncomfortably. "I'm Neville Longbottom, by the way."

"Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

To say Neville was surprised would be an understatement. His eyes bugged out and whatever he tried to say was lost in a rather impressive stutter on the boy's part. Ron seemed to find this amusing, but Harry just hoped this wouldn't be the usual reaction to his identity.

Fortunately Neville's inability to speak wore off after a while, to an extent. He was still shy, but Harry got the impression that he was normally like that; the only time he really got into a conversation was when Ron brought up Quidditch again. Neville seemed to be rather fond of the sport, although he didn't try to hide the fact that he'd never play it himself.

That line of conversation went on until a message told them they were nearing the school, at which point they changed into their robes. Conversations didn't really continue passed that point, and they were at the small platform near Hogwarts within minutes.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Hagrid looked down on the crowd of children, smiling. Harry made his way over to the giant, who beamed at his approach.

"'Ello, 'Arry. You doin' okay?" Hagrid asked.

"I'm just fine," Harry answered, smiling at the bearded man.

"Good ta hear," the man said said before returning to calling first years over.

"You know him?" Neville asked, looking fearful of the man.

"Yeah, that's Hagrid," Harry said. "He was the one who introduced me to the wizarding world."

That seemed the mollify Neville well enough, and the three boys followed Hagrid along a path, which opened up to a large black lake. On the other side of said lake was a large castle with many tall towers. The windows of the building were filled with light, which made a beautiful contrast to the dark sky behind it.

Harry was sure that they would have all just stare at the sight for hours if it wasn't for Hagrid.

"No more'n four to a boat!" he called, and when Harry pried his eyes off of the castle he noticed a small fleet of boats atop the lake.

Harry quickly entered a boat with both Ron and Neville, and as soon as Hagrid said the word all of the boats were crossing the lake as one. It was rather boring, Harry found, because Ron and Neville kept talking about Quidditch teams. Since Harry didn't know any he couldn't really take part.

It was several minutes of riding over the lake that they arrived at the end of the water, which was inside of a cavern. They quickly dismounted, and started on the journey by foot.

"Hey you," Vivio said after she managed to make her way to Harry.

"Hey," Harry agreed, smiling.

"You doing okay?" Vivio asked, and Harry couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Why does everybody ask me that?" Harry inquired, shaking his head. "Seriously, I can't think of a day when somebody hasn't asked me that."

"It's a conspiracy," Vivio said, grinning. "We're waiting until you have the worst day of your life, and they we're going to make it even worse."

"Oh, that's just great," Harry said, mock glaring at his friend. "Here I thought you actually cared about me."

"Well, at least you've learned the truth at last," Vivio said playfully, receiving a light slap on her arm as a response.

"Prat," Harry said, grinning.

"Hey," Vivio said, hitting him back, "that's my line."

"Well, okay then," Harry said, hitting Vivio on the arm again, "git."

It was Vivio's turn to mock glare at Harry, and the banter continued until they found themselves at a pair of large wooden doors at the front of the castle.

Hagrid knocked on the doors three times, and a tall, black haired witch answered. Both Vivio and Harry realized they probably shouldn't mess with her, although Vivio knew it was probably inevitable. Her inner-Hayate wouldn't let her not.

After a small conversation between the two adults, the group of eleven-year-olds were lead into the castle. There were very few people who weren't shocked at how large the entrance hall was, as they could imagine fitting a decent sized house inside of it.

While they were on their journey through the castle they passed a door which had what sounded like hundreds of voices escaping from it. Harry really wasn't looking forward to going in there, and neither was Vivio. While the girl wasn't shy by any stretch of the imagination, there were far too many people from an unknown society together for her liking.

The door they entered lead to a room off the side of the loud one, and everybody was huddled closely together. It was there that the woman finally addressed them all.

"Welcome to Hogwarts."

* * *

A/N - Because the timeline has changed very little so far, the train ride was rather similar to canon for Harry. Which was more annoying to write than I thought it would be. I promise never to write a scene so close to canon ever again.


	5. Mysteries Upon Mysteries

Disclaimer: Really, is there any interesting way to say that I don't own either series in this story, because I don't think that there is.

* * *

Mysteries Upon Mysteries

Those three words were enough to send a chill down Harry's spine. They were a reminder that he was no longer in the world he learned so much about over the past few months, and everything about the wizarding world was still an enigma to him. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to learn more about it, but other than the ones on spells, the books were more boring than the ones on the TSAB, and any time he tried to go into the wizarding world they were chased off by what Erio had gotten to calling rabid fans.

Oh, to say he was starting to dislike his fame would be a complete understatement.

"I am professor McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts and head of the Gryffindor House," the woman said. "Today you are each going to be sorted into one of the four houses in Hogwarts; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each of these houses have produced their share of great wizards and witches, and have yet to stop doing so. The most important thing to remember is that, during your time at Hogwarts, your house will be like a family to you."

Harry was sure her eyes flickered in his direction as she said that, and a shot of irritation shot through him. Why couldn't Dumbledore had kept his knowledge of Harry's home life to himself? It wasn't terribly difficult to see that the matter was personal.

"You will be able to both win and lose your house points based upon your actions, so do try to behave yourself," McGonagall said, taking a glance at all of the assembled children as she did so, as to gauge their reactions. "At the end of the year the house who has the most points will be awarded the house cup."

;;That's a terrible idea,;; came Vivio's telepathic message, and Harry turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

;;How so?;;

;;Well,;; she turned towards a girl with glasses with a thoughtful expression, ;;it just is.;;

;;Personal?;; asked Harry, receiving a nod as conformation. ;;Got it.;;

That was one of the things that Harry really appreciated about Vivio; she wouldn't tell anybody what's wrong with somebody unless she gets their permission or they needed help right away, no matter how irrelevant they seemed to her. With how much time he spent around the girl, she must have picked up on a few small things Harry would rather not bother people with.

It took Harry a moment to realize that during their conversation the deputy headmistress had disappeared from the room. While he was getting better at telepathy, he still wasn't so good as to pay attention to another conversation while having the one in his head.

;;Where did she go?;;

"She went to go finish preparations for the sorting," Vivio said, rolling her eyes.

"Ah," Harry said, nodding. "Any idea how long that will take?"

"She said it would be a few minutes," said Vivio.

"Right," Harry said.

Turing his attention to the people around him, Harry noticed some of the wildest theories about how they would be sorted. Ron was talking to Neville about how his older brother said they would have to wrestle a troll, and a bushy haired girl was naming a list of spells she'd learned that she thought they may need to know to be sorted.

"She's not serious, is she?" Harry asked, frowning.

"I doubt we need to know all of those spells to get into the school," Vivio said, thoughtful. "Do you think she really knows how to cast all of those spells? Because me and some other girls tried casting spells and they didn't exactly...work...very well."

Harry let out a badly contained snort of laughter. While she didn't seem it, Vivio was a bit of a bookworm, and got flustered whenever she couldn't do something that she'd read up on. It was one of the only things that made the girl go truly red faced, as she was then.

"You could always go and ask," Harry said, jerking his head in the bushy-haired girl's direction.

"I guess," Vivio said, looking to the other girl and back to Harry. "You wanna come with me?"

"Not really," Harry said, laughing mirthlessly. "I'm not too keen on introducing myself with so many people around."

"Oh," Vivio said, spirits dropping for a mere moment before she was beaming yet again. "Well, you don't have to introduce yourself yet! Just go say hello or something."

Harry let out a sigh, but didn't argue. While Vivio was normally a sensible person, she could be a bit zealous when it came to meeting new people. Not necessarily becoming friends with them, mind you, but it wasn't as if she would be anything less than delighted if that did end up happening. With that in mind, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter any longer.

"Fine," he said with a shrug.

With that word he was unceremoniously dragged over to the bushy haired girl, who they could tell was getting herself worked up over the sorting. If that wasn't bad enough, her spew of knowledge combined with the reason for it was making many of the people nearby her nervous as well, because it was unlikely any of them could do most of the spells she'd listed.

"Hello," Vivio said, smiling brightly at the other girl. "I'm Vivio Takamachi."

"Oh, hello," the girl said, seeming rather surprised at somebody starting a conversation with her. "My name is Hermione Granger. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," Vivio beamed. "So...do you actually know how to cast all of those spells?"

"Of course," the girl said, looking at Vivio as if she was crazy. "It wasn't terribly hard, once I memorized all of my textbooks. The only difficult part of it was actually casting them, and that was only an obstacle because I wasn't allowed to use magic at home. As soon as I stepped foot onto the Hogwarts express I began to practice them, and most of them worked very well. How about you two? What's your name, by the way?"

She said this all very fast, and it took a few moments for their minds to catch up with what she said. It was then that they realized she was talking to Harry.

"Errr..." Harry frowned, and when he turned to Vivio she just shrugged. ;;What do I say?;;

;;I dunno,;; Vivio said, shrugging lightly enough for Harry to really be able to notice it. ;;Just say your first name.;;

;;She'll realize who I am, then. It's not like there are many Harrys that are going to be first years.;;

Vivio frowned, and fortunately Harry was relieved from having to answer Hermione's question when a pair of ghosts floated into the room, scaring many of the first years. Thought harry would never have believed it, Vivio was one of the people who looked absolutely terrified at the ghosts. She didn't seem the type to be scared of much, but there she was, face paling considerably as she stared at the two ghosts.

Fortunately the ghosts only talked with the first years for a few moments - during which Vivio became much more comfortable around the specters - before McGonagall returned and lead them into the room from which hundreds of voices were escaping from that they'd earlier passed.

Harry and Vivio were both awestruck at the ceiling of the room, which looked as if there was no ceiling at all. They were quickly informed by Hermione that there was indeed a ceiling, just charmed to look like the outdoor sky. It was an impressive feat of magic, and one that neither Mid-Childan or Belkan would have been capable of.

Oh, yes, Belkan and Mid-Childan magics were certainly not capable of something like that, and many other things that Terran magic could do. It was for that very reason that the TSAB's interest in the new form of magic has increased in leaps and bounds over the past month.

Ancient Belkan magic is mostly based on using magic to strengthen one's physical capabilities, and as such they used mostly mass-based weapons such as swords, hammers and even fists. While they may use shooting arts, it's mostly as a last resort.

Mid-Childan magic, on the other hand, is more based on the idea of using pure magic to attack somebody. This is why their devices are mostly staffs and guns; because they aren't supposed to get into close quarter fights with their enemies. Even the staff design was only created so that mages could defend themselves from a knight in combat during the war against Belka.

Modern Belkan has evolved into a sort of a hybrid between the two previous. Like Belkan, it increases the physical capabilities of the knight that uses it. Unlike Ancient Belkan, however, the modern counterpart has found it convenient to use as much shooting spells as they do physical blows, which has made it one of the most versatile forms of magic to learn. It was for that reason that Vivio was so keen on learning it.

Terran magic was something completely different from those two. It seemed to be based around the ability to manipulate something to work as the witch or wizard wanted it to. Of course both Belkan and Mid-Childan magic could do this to an extent, but it took a lot of power and a device, because the spells to do it with were too complicated for the human mind to comprehend.

With Terran magic, however, it wasn't unheard of for a wizard to turn a street sign into a giant snake to attack his enemies with, and all he needed to do was wave his wand around and say something in latin. It was, as Hayate put it, completely ridiculous in the best sort of way.

It was this, along with the fact that it held the answer for enabling a quarter of the people with Chaos Cores to use their magic, that made Terran magic something completely revolutionary to the TSAB. This was a fact that Nanoha and Hayate - mainly Hayate, though - were sure to remind the crew of the Claudia constantly. If Harry was the type of brag, he was sure he would have joined them.

Those thoughts were quickly shaken out of his head. He needed to pay attention to how the sorting worked. Even though he wasn't too eager for it, he had to be sure to get into Hogwarts. With how interested the TSAB was in Terran magic, he couldn't risk losing a chance to learn more about it for them.

It was then that he got a good look around the room, and he noticed that the older kids appeared to be separated according to what house they were in. That wasn't a bad thing, but Harry didn't notice one case of somebody being interested in interacting with somebody from another house. At that moment Vivio's dislike for the house system made sense to Harry.

McGonagall directed their attention towards a wizard's hat sitting on top of a stool, and informed them that the had would be used in sorting them, but neglected to say how. That question was answered quickly enough though, as soon as the hat sang a song. Harry could feel every first year - including himself - let out a sigh of relief; simply putting on a hat wasn't very hard.

Without very much delay at all, McGonagall picked up a piece of parchment and began to read names off of it. "Abbott, Hannah" and "Bones, Susan" were the first to be sorted, and ended up in the Hufflepuff house. Vivio's pleased expression at this was all too obvious to Harry, who had to stifle a laugh at his friend's antics.

"Crabbe, Vincent" was the first to be absent from the hall at the time his name was called, fallowed shortly by "Goyle, Gregory. In both cases McGonagall called their names several times, followed by pauses to see if they were just being lazy. After it was clear that the latter wasn't going to be coming up, Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor. Vivio and Harry shared a look that said neither of them understood how that ended up happening.

When "Greengrass, Daphne" was called the girl hesitated, at which point Vivio was quick to whisper something into the spectacled girl's ear. Whatever it was received a shaky nod from the girl, and she nervously walked up to the hat and paused a moment before placing the hat on top of her head. After what was the longest sorting so far, the hat yelled out "RAVENCLAW!"

The whole hall went silent for a moment before the loudest cheer thus far roared from the Ravenclaw table, where Daphne went and began to talk with "Brocklehurst, Mandy" and "Cornfoot, Stephen." They weren't the only ones, though; the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs were cheering as well, and Susan Bones had stood up to give her applause. The only ones not cheering were the Slytherins, who looked murderous at this.

This apparently unexpected event didn't stall the sorting any. Not long afterwards Neville ended up being sorted into Gryffindor, which marked the second time that Harry had no idea what the hat was thinking. While he liked Neville a lot, the boy didn't seem like the bravest person in the world.

"Malfoy, Draco" was also missing, and it was at this point that Percy Weasley found fit to inform the teachers that he'd heard a rumor about the three missing boys being stuck to the top of the Hogwarts Express. The deputy's face paled as she rushed out of the room. There was a few seconds' debate up at the staff table before a short man by the name of Professor Flitwick resumed reading of the names, and it was him that called out Harry's.

The whole hall was filled up with voices which increased in volume as soon as Harry started making his trek towards the hat. To say the walk was uncomfortable would be an understatement, because he could physically feel every single eye in the room on him as he made his way.

;;Oh, well this is interesting,;; the hat said as soon as it landed on Harry's head.

;;What is?;; Harry asked.

;;You're with Belka? No, not quite,;; the hat corrected itself. ;;Still based in Dimensional Space, but very different, I see. So it was Mid-Childa that finally took Belka down; I can't say I saw that one coming.;;

;;What are you talking about?;; Harry frowned.

;;Well, you see, Mid-Childa wasn't terribly powerful at the time I was created. That was several hundred years ago, though. As you probably know, things have a tendency of changing over long periods of time,;; the hat said, leaving the topic far behind. ;;Oh, but I'm getting off of topic. I think you probably belong in Slytherin if you want to bring Earth into the realms of Dimensional Space, but that isn't really fair, is it?;;

;;I don't even know what you're talking about,;; Harry said sheepishly.

;;No, I suppose you wouldn't,;; the hat laughed. ;;Well, back to the sorting; you could easily fit into any of the houses. Since you're the one who brought the good news of Belka's fall to me, I'd be more than happy to let you into whatever you want.;;

;;W-well, Gryffindor, I guess,;; Harry said. ;;After all, that's the house my parents were in.;;

;;Yes, I think Godric would be much more happy with the TSAB than he was with Belka,;; the Sorting Hat mused. ;;Very well, then. If it's what you want, I see no good reason not to sort you into GRYFFINDOR!;;

;;Thank you,;; Harry said, before taking the hat off and making his way over to the Gryffindor table. The cheering for him was, if possible, louder than the Ravenclaw's were for Daphne, and two boys that Harry assumed were the Weasley twins were yelling "We got Potter" at the top of their lungs as they danced around the table, but he couldn't help but tune all of it out.

No matter how much he tried, he couldn't think of a good reason for the Sorting Hat to know about Belka and, possibly, the rest of Dimensional Space.

* * *

Vivio smiled as Harry made his way to the Gryffindor table. She knew that he'd been hoping to get into Gryffindor because he wanted to know what his parent's life was like, and he figured being in the same house as they were would help with that.

It was only a few seconds before she noticed that he didn't look at all thrilled about the result. That didn't surprise her, because his fame brought about the loudest cheer of the year, which she knew he would hate. The problem was that didn't seem to be the cause of it. He wasn't nearly annoyed enough for that to be the problem.

;;Harry, are you okay?;;

;;Really, stop asking that,;; Harry said, only sounding half-hearted in his rebuttal.

;;Okay,;; she said, making a mental note to ask it more often in the future as playfully as she could, ;;but really, are you?;;

;;Yeah,;; he said. ;;It's weird, though; the Sorting Hat knows about Dimensional Space and Belka. I think it can read your mind.;;

;;Oh,;; Vivio deadpanned. ;;That isn't good.;;

;;No it's not,;; Harry agreed. ;;What do we do?;;

;;I don't know,;; Vivio said, frowning. ;;I guess I can start by asking it not to tell anybody.;;

;;What if that doesn't work?;;

;;I'll need to bring it up with Fate, regardless,;; Vivio said strongly. ;;It's her job to deal with anybody who could pose a threat to our secrecy.;;

;;Does a hat count as a person?;; asked Harry, and from where she was Vivio could see his eyebrows raised.

;;Of course!;; she said, frowning at the boy who she'd come to call one of her best friends. ;;It can talk, can't it?;;

That was the end of that, and it was only a few minutes before Vivio was called up to be sorted herself.

;;Well well well, here we have another one. This is a strange day indeed,;; the hat said, sounding far too amused.

;;Uh, yeah,;; Vivio said awkwardly. ;;Could you not tell anybody about Dimensional Space, please.;;

;;Of course,;; the hat said. ;;I can't reveal somebody's secrets without their permission. Oh, don't be like that; I am simply not capable of doing it.;;

;;Thank you.;;

;;For what?;; the hat asked, almost laughing. ;;Didn't I say I couldn't do it? I wasn't exaggerating.;;

;;Oh,;; Vivio said, embarrassed. ;;Well, the sorting?;;

;;Yes, the sorting,;; the hat agreed. ;;Well, I do agree with your assessment; Hufflepuff would be a great house for you. You would also fit in well with in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, there is little doubt in my mind, but I do believe we need more powerful people coming from HUFFLEPUFF!;;

It took Vivio a moment to realize that was the hat having sorted her, and she quickly went on her way to the Hufflepuff table. If she was going to have a conversation with the hat about it's knowledge of Belka it wasn't going to be in front of the entire school.

As soon as she reached the table Susan and Hannah called her over to them, opening up a spot between them. As she sat down, Susan threw her arm over Vivio's shoulder and grinned at the girl.

"It seems like we all ended up getting sorted where we belong," the redhead said, sounding quite pleased with the result of, presumably, Daphne's sorting.

"Yep," Vivio said, looking at Daphne talking animatedly with two others at the Ravenclaw table. "Hopefully it was for the best."

"Of course it was!" Susan said, beaming. "And don't think I didn't see you convince her at the last second!"

"I didn't convince her!" Vivio quickly corrected. "She was just nervous! I think she was planning to be in Ravenclaw anyway, at that point."

"Whatever you say," Susan said, rolling her eyes in good nature.

"I can't believe you convinced a Greengrass to become a Ravenclaw," Hannah said, barely containing a laugh that was threatening to spill out at any moment.

"Why's that?" Vivio asked.

"The Greengrass family have been sorted into Slytherin and marrying other Slytherin for the past seven generations. It's practically bred into the family, at this point," Hannah said, grinning. "This'll end up being a scandal, I'm sure."

"It's...Is it that bad?" Vivio asked, for the first time realizing that convincing Daphne to be in Ravenclaw with so little time for her to think it over may have not been the best idea.

"Oh yes," Hannah laughed. "One of the only scandals I could think of that would be worse would be Draco being sorted into anything other than a Slytherin."

"That'll never happen," Susan snorted. "I've met him, and he's a mini version of his father."

"It was a fun thought, though," said the still grinning Hannah, who was looking nothing short of predatory at the idea of the scandal that would ensue.

"Yes, it's most certainly a shame," Susan said, mock-frowning as she thew her arm across her forehead melodramatically.

"The wizarding world really doesn't have any important news to talk about, does it?" Vivio asked seriously.

For their part, Susan and Hannah just looked at each other for a few seconds before every ounce of laughter they'd been holding back since the conversation started broke through.

"Nope!"

* * *

"Weasley, Ronald!"

Harry sat up straighter in his seat and watched as his new friend walked up and put the Sorting Hat on his head, crossing his fingers and hoping Ron got sorted into Gryffindor. Without Vivio in there with him, he needed somebody to talk to, and Neville wasn't exactly the best conversationalist. There was really nothing to worry about though, because Ron was quickly sorted into Gryffindor.

"Blimey, did they need to sit us up in front of the whole school for that!" Ron complained, eliciting a laugh from both Harry and Neville.

"I know what you mean," Neville agreed. "I mean, I thought everybody was going to make fun of me..."

"I didn't like everybody staring at me," Harry agreed with a nod.

"I still don't get why," Ron muttered, sounding very much like a child who didn't get something they wanted for their birthday. A normal child, though, not Dudley.

"Would you like to be famous for your parents dying?" Harry asked, letting a frown cross his face. Ron was a good guy, but he lacked a trait called tact to work with. In some ways this was a blessing to Harry, but in others he'd rather Ron not speak at all.

"Of course not!" Ron exclaimed. "I just mean that you should go with your fame instead of pretending it isn't there. I mean, you really have no way of getting rid of it."

Harry could think of a few ways of getting away from it, but he had to admit that Ron presented a good idea. Harry would never like his fame - not only because of why he's famous, but because in his mind there was no reason that he should have been viewed as more important than anybody else his age - and probably never would, but his fame could be a great asset to the TSAB's attempts to bring Earth into it's administration.

No matter how good of an idea it was, though, Harry knew that it wouldn't be happening any time soon. For one thing, the TSAB wanted to remain a secret to the wizarding world until they were sure they wouldn't start a war. For another, Fate cared far too much about Harry to let him use himself like that.

"You don't know what you're talking about," said Neville of all people, glaring the best glare he could muster at Ron. Harry had to raise an eyebrow at this behavior coming from Neville.

"Oh, what do you know?" Ron asked, and while Neville didn't reply, his eyes told Harry everything he needed to know; he knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Shut it, Ron," Harry said, giving his red haired friend a warning look.

Ron, for his part, didn't seem to have any idea what he did wrong. Still, he either got the message or didn't have any other reasons to pursue the matter, because it wasn't brought up again at the Gryffindor table.

After that the headmaster said a few nonsensical words - reminding Harry that he was quite mad, despite how powerful he may have been - and a large amount of food appeared on the tables. Given that this was a feast, Harry had no problems with eating all the food he could stuff in his mouth.

The only real revelation during the feast was once again about Neville, in the form of a story he told about his uncle dropping him out of a window to get him to preform accidental magic. The story horrified Harry, because if Neville hadn't preformed magic then he would have died, and there was nothing else to it. He was quick to pass it on to Vivio, who was just as horrified as him.

She immediately informed him that she would talk with Fate about it as soon as she could, which helped to relieve Harry of his worries. She then made a rhetorical question about whether anybody in the wizarding world had a normal childhood, which Harry pretended he didn't hear as he filed it away for later.

It was then that they truly got onto the topic of how the Sorting Hat knew about Dimensional Space, and in the end they agreed to sneak into whatever room it was kept to ask it at a later time. The fact that it apparently couldn't tell anybody about the TSAB or that Harry and Vivio were working for them was a relief to both children, but it didn't get rid of the sense of foreboding the both of them got when they realized the school may have some Belkan roots, because they were both well aware that the Belkans could get pretty nasty with their creations.

After they were finished eating, Dumbledore made several announcements. None of them were very interesting, except for Professor Lupin being introduced as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Harry asked Percy what happened to the last one, and he learned that there was apparently a curse put on the position so that there would never be a Defense teacher that taught the class twice.

It was less than a minute later that Dumbledore gave the order for perfects to take the first years to their house's Common Room, and Percy spent the entire trip explaining things to them that none of them really listened to. Everything in the castle was amazing, and most of it succeeded in grabbing their attention much better than the perfect who never even noticed he was being ignored.

Getting to drop into the bed in his new dorm was a relief to Harry, because although he had to admit that the day went by much better than he had originally though it would, he was still just as exhausted.

* * *

The moment Vivio entered the Hufflepuff Basement it became obvious to her that her new Head of House was the Herbology teacher. Not that she didn't already have that bit of information in her head, but the sheer amount of windows in the room and how orderly the plants scattered around the room made it a beautiful sight to behold. The amazing sight was amplified by the fact that it was night outside of the building. Vivio could only imagine what the room would look like once it had sunlight shining into it.

"Welcome everybody, to Hufflepuff House!" said a short boy with blonde hair and a look on his face that indicated he was rather nervous about being where he was. His name, Vivio soon learned, was Gabriel Truman, fifth year male perfect of the Hufflepuff house.

The greeting was quickly returned by almost every single one of the first years in some shape of form, be it verbal or through body language. Vivio herself waved at the perfect and chirped out a hello. The most amusing thing was that many of the older children who had already returned to the Basement also returned the greeting, causing Gabriel to mock-glare in their direction.

"Oh, shut up you lot. Anyway, I must say; it's great to see such a great group of kids getting into our house this year!" the boy said, peering over the group of children in front of him with a grin on his face. "Unfortunately, I have to say this, also; being in Hufflepuff will be tough. I have little doubt that most of your peers who aren't in this house will look down on you. Don't let that get you down! We know that most of the things they say about us isn't true, and that's all that matters!"

A smile overtook Vivio's face. She knew she would fit in just fine in the Hufflepuff house if this was the prevalent attitude of the rest of them.

She didn't like how the other house treated them, however. Why being sorted into a specific house would be such a big deal Vivio would never understand, and she hoped she never would have to. The war against Belka had taught most worlds in Dimensional Space to get past things like that if they wanted any chance of winning, and they never looked back after it was done.

"Okay then, I can show all of the boys to their dorms," the perfect said cheerfully. That mood was quickly replaced by nervousness as he scanned the surrounding area. Vivio followed his gaze and noticed that there weren't any female perfects in the area. She wasn't terribly surprised by this, because a lot of the Hufflepuff perfects stayed behind in the Great Hall to offer their help to anybody who remained there.

"Well," Gabriel said awkwardly, shifting as he stood, "is there anybody that could show the first year girls to their dorms?"

"I could!" a dark skinned girl piped up. She was short and no more than a year or two above Vivio, with long bright green hair that flowed wildly down to her waist. Everything about her pointed to her being really weird except her brown eyes, which were burning with amusement at various reactions that the first years had to her.

Gabriel nodded his thanks to the girl, and his eyes held all the thanks Vivio would need. Apparently the girl agreed, because she gave him a thumbs up to go lead the boys to their dorms.

"Well then," she said, grinning a very Hayate-like grin at them, " it's good to meet you all. My name is Alice Fangton."

"What's up with your hair?" Hannah blurted out, then turned beat red when she realized she actually said it.

"What up with yours?" Alice countered, and with a flick of her wand and something muttered under her breath, Hannah's blonde hair was suddenly a deep ocean blue. Since the younger girl had her hair in pigtails she never noticed this.

"Nothing!" she said with a huff, causing all the remaining first years to giggle. "What?"

"Nothing," Susan repeated, eyes shining with mirth.

"Your hair's blue," Vivio said, partly to put the girl out of her misery but mostly to see her reaction.

"What!" Hannah shouted, taking a pigtail and examining it. "Huh, that doesn't actually look that bad."

"Does our dorm have a mirror?" Susan asked, grinning like a fiend. "I think Hannah needs a better look at herself."

"Jerk," Hannah said, glaring at her pureblood friend. The image was ruined by the grin that was overshadowing anything else on her face. "Where is our dorm anyway?"

"Oh, so you really are worried about what you look like?" Susan quipped, getting slapped on the arm as a result. "What was that for?"

"You are being sort of a prat," Vivio offered, getting hit for her efforts. "Hey!"

"As amusing as this is," Alice said, seeming like she'd rather not have to stop the scene in front of her, "I think it's time we get you to your dorm, huh?"

"Right," Vivio agreed, ignoring the mock-glares being exchanged by the two girls she'd come to consider friends over the course of the day. She was sure if she didn't do this she would practically die of laughter.

"Well then, follow me or risk sleeping on one of the couches for the night."

With that Alice lead them to their new dorms, and Vivio was pleased to learn that she, Susan and Hannah got put into the same dorm.

There were four beds in the room they got, the fourth of which belonged to a girl named Megan Jones. She was a shorter girl than Vivio (which wasn't saying much, since Vivio was one of the tallest girls in their year) who had short black hair and brown eyes, with skin that Vivio worried she would mistake for snow once the winter seasons arrived.

"Well, here you are," Alice said, a smile played at her face, which marked the first time Vivio didn't see any trace of mischievousness about her facial expressions. "I really do hope you enjoy your time in Hufflepuff. Remember what I assume McGonagall said; we will be your family during your stay at Hogwarts."

"Does she really say the same thing every year?" Susan asked.

"Just about," Alice said, and suddenly the mischievousness was back in full force. "Now if you excuse me, I've gotta go find the perfect girls and remind them why it's not a good idea to pawn their work off on others."

"Good luck!" Vivio called, eliciting a snort of laughter from the third year, who gave her a thumbs up as she left. "Something tells me I don't want to be them."

"Oh, not at all," Susan said, grinning. "I'm sure she's capable of worse than that."

Vivio glanced in the direction Susan indicated to see Hannah pouting into a mirror, which was placed over one of the dressers in the room. Honestly, Vivio didn't think she looked too bad, but from the expression on the other girl's face it wasn't outlandish to think that opinion wasn't mutual. Vivio and Susan shared a grin.

"That - That'll wear off, right?" Megan said, frowning. "I mean, it'd be cruel if it didn't."

"It probably will," Susan said, ignoring Vivio's thoughtful expression. "I'm sure Alice isn't that mean. She's a Hufflepuff!"

Megan nodded as if Susan's answer said everything she needed to hear, and the two started talking about something in hushed tones. Vivio tried to talk with Hannah, but the girl was too busy complaining about the shade of blue not matching the green of her eyes, so that attempt was quickly dropped.

"Well, I'm going to bed," Vivio said as she jumped onto said piece of furniture.

"Wait, already?" Susan asked, sounding quite disappointed.

"Well, yeah. It's pretty late now, don't you think?" Vivio said, curling up into a ball under the covers. "I don't wanna risk missing breakfast tomorrow."

"We don't need to go to be early to get to breakfast on time!" Susan said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Do you remember the way back to the Great Hall?" Vivio challenged, looking Susan straight in the eye, with her amusement evident.

"No," Susan admitted, "but it can't be that hard to find it."

"Good luck, then," Vivio said, and with that her head disappeared into the covers with the rest of her. That didn't mean she didn't notice that Susan was the only of the girls who didn't go to bed after only a moment of thought on the matter, in an act of defiance more likely than not.

As long as the same people were around Vivio that were on this day, there was no doubt in her mind that she was going to have fun this year.

* * *

Remus Lupin was...intrigued, had to be the word for it.

When Albus had told him that he left Harry with a woman from a secret society his response was nothing short of nuclear. After all, while there have been some good secret societies such as the Order of the Phoenix, there were more like the Death Eaters that have some sort of malicious intent. Why be a secret if you were doing things that were entirely legal unless you were planning for war?

Even Albus' promise that he used some minor Legilimency on her to be sure she had Harry's best interests at heard didn't relieve his worries. Just because she had Harry's best interest at heart didn't mean she was a good person in general, not to mention the possibility that one of the things she knew that Albus didn't could have been a form of Occlumency that could hide her intentions from him.

The most telling thing about this whole mess was that McGonagall was on his - a Marauder's - side in the dispute.

Despite these these factors Albus was insistent that what he did was for the best, which wasn't very reassuring because of how apparently similar it was to his response when questioned on leaving him with the Dursleys, and one simply needed to look how that turned out to know it wan't reliable.

The moment Remus finally got to see Harry as he walked up to the sorting hat he had to believe that they were at lest treating him well, although that didn't clear up any worry about their motives. He was sort of suspicious about how Harry's sorting took longer than many others', but he was logical enough to know this didn't speak as much of the group that took him in as it did Harry himself.

The biggest blow to his suspicions was the girl, who was an outright member of the group according to Dumbledore, being sorted into Hufflepuff of all houses. Being a good person was practically a requirement to get into that house as far as Remus knew, although he could by no means claim to be an expert on the Hufflepuff house.

"So I think they may not actually be so bad," Remus said, concluding his summery of events McGonagall missed for the several hours it took to catch the Hogwarts Express.

Honestly, Remus found it hilarious that the enchantments put on the train to protect students made it so difficult to help the very same students. He was surprised that the problem hadn't been exposed years ago, but when he thought about it there was never an event on the Express that the perfects couldn't handle, even with the Marauders on it. The professors have never had a good reason to discover it.

That was certainly going to be fixed now, he was sure.

"We've been over this, Remus," McGonagall countered, frowning. "They arrived at Diagon Alley and held the Headmaster's attention on the very same day that Quirrell attempted to steal the Sorcerer's Stone from it's vault. If Hagrid hadn't caught him I can't imagine what would have happened."

"The timing is a bit suspicious," Remus agreed. "Albus said that they didn't even know what Gringotts was before they got there, though. While the adults may have been good at acting, with the girl in Hufflepuff I doubt she had anything to do with it."

"And she very well may not have," Minerva said, "but that doesn't mean the adults in this group didn't. After all, if you had a plan to achieve immortality, would you tell an eleven-year-old about it? Even if they do have a modified version of Occlumency, I doubt somebody that young would have been able to learn it well enough to trick Albus."

"You have a point," Remus admitted. "We probably don't have to worry about Miss Takamachi, at any rate."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Minerva said, shaking her head with a sad look on her face. "You were a member of the Order, Remus. You know that these people wouldn't think twice about sending somebody after the stone just because they're a child."

"I doubt we're dealing with Death Eaters, here," Remus said with a genuinely amused laugh. "After all, they aren't the most intelligent group of individuals without their leader included in their numbers. Who would think to do this; Lucius?"

"I never said they were," Minerva said, "but if they are after immortality then they could easily be similar in nature. It's entirely possible that a new Dark Lord has risen to fill in the void that You-Know-Who left behind after his fall. It's been ten years, and that would be more than enough time to build a group of his or her own."

"I have to give you a point there, Professor," Remus said with a sigh. "You're right; I'll keep an eye on her."

"Thank you. Now if you could excuse me, I must ask Pomona to do the same," McGonagall said by way of goodbye as she exited the room.

No, Remus didn't believe for a minute that he had to worry about the girl. She got sorted into Hufflepuff, and it's impossible to trick the hat into sorting you into another house. If she were planning to steal the stone then she would have to be sneaky, and if that were the case she would have been sorted into Slytherin.

If she did try it, Remus doubted that she would get very far without alerting somebody to her plan. The Marauders, after all, ended up getting caught ore than not, and they had Sirius Black among them. The man was more a Slytherin than a Gryffindor, and only managed to get sorted into the latter house because he was just bold enough and argued his point with the hat.

...Which, of course, meant that the girl could easily have some Slytherin traits. Well, that thought certainly brought everything back to stage one, didn't it? Remus decided to do what he was going to do before, and keep an unbiased eye on her.

With that in mind, he never for a moment made a mistake of assuming the group was full of good people. Minerva had brought up several good points, and Remus would be a fool to ignore them. It was entirely possible that Quirrell was recruited into this secret society - possibly lead by a new Dark Lord - and tasked with stealing the Sorcerer's Stone for them. As long as the chance existed, he could never trust them.

It was also possible that they took Harry in so that they could use his fame to their advantage. After all, he was an eleven-year-old who just learned about his fame, and most likely has no idea what to do with it. It wouldn't be too terribly difficult to convince him to use it for their benefit, especially if they were the first adults to be truly kind to him.

Still, Remus Lupin wasn't one to jump to conclusions. While the possibility of the society being malevolent existed, so too did the possibility of it being benign. Assuming they were evil may only succeed in alienating a potential ally and possibly creating an enemy that wouldn't be there otherwise. He'd need to learn more about them to make a proper opinion on the matter.

Besides, as a Marauder he knew that they were going to have a difficult enough time with just Minerva suspicious of them. He couldn't help but feel bad for poor Vivio Takamachi, who managed to already get onto Minerva's bad side without even interacting with the woman directly. That wasn't a fun place to be even if you knew why you were there.

At least she would have Pomona on her side, because Remus knew that the woman would never think ill of a Hufflepuff.

* * *

A/N- It's my opinion that in a crossover both sides need to have equal benefit in remaining together, which is why I did what I did with Terran magic being revolutionary to the TSAB. At least to my knowledge, making things shape-shift isn't a common ability in the Nanoha universe. I mean, in any case that something like shapeshifting may have ended up happening there was a machine or Rare Skill involved in the process, so yeah.

jgkitarel - Yes, I do have plans for Ginny, but they won't be happening for at least a few chapters at this point.

Lupine Horror - It could have everything to do with the missing Horcrux, but at the same time it could have nothing to do with it. You'll just have to wait and see.


	6. First Impressions

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from either series does not belong to me.

* * *

First Impressions

The Great Hall was even more beautiful during the daytime than it was at night. It helped that the sky was clear of any clouds, leaving the ceiling a large mass of blue with a single bright yellow orb trailing slowly across it. The sight was beautiful enough to grab Harry's attention for nearly a minute before he began collecting the food he wanted to eat for breakfast.

He was sure not to eat half as much as he did at the feast, because over the past month he had learned the hard way that eating that much food wasn't by any means a good idea. One too many trips to the medical wing for that very reason hammered that lesson his head.

Ron seemed to have never learned that lesson, because he stuffed his mouth with as much food as he could reach.

"It looks like you managed to find somebody who eats even more than I do," a giggling voice said, and Harry turned to see that Vivio had taken a seat next to him. The girl looked rather impressed as she stared at Ron.

"Uh...Vivo, you know that this is the Gryffindor table, right?" Harry asked.

"Yep!" said the grinning Vivio.

"And you do know that you were sorted into Hufflepuff, right?" Harry continued.

"That's right!" Vivio said, not doing a thing to stop giggling at her friend's antics.

"Then why are you sitting here?" Harry finished, and the most immediate response to this was a light slap to the shoulder.

"I'm just saying good morning," Vivio said, putting on her best mock-hurt expression towards the raven-haired boy. "I would never have imagined that you wanted to get rid of me so badly."

"I-I didn't say that!" Harry said quickly, and it wasn't until she began laughing that Harry realized she was only joking. "It's too early for this..."

"Really? I've been up for hours!" Vivio said, grinning.

"I don't get you sometimes," Harry said with a small laugh, shaking his head in good nature.

"Well, I thought it would be harder to find the Great Hall than it actually was," Vivio grinned sheepishly, "so I convinced most of the girls in my dorm to go to bed early. It was fun trying to wake Susan up."

Vivio got a rather Hayate-like look on her face as she said that, which made Harry rather glad that he was not a Hufflepuff girl.

One needed to be constantly on guard to be roommates with Vivio, as Einhard had told him. Vivio didn't pull any stunts like that very often, which had the annoying side effect of people forgetting she did it at all.

Any further conversations were stalled by McGonagall arriving at their section of the table, handing parchments out to other kids on her way.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," the woman said as she handed him, Neville and Ron a similar sheet of parchment. Harry decided that he would read this later. "I'm afraid that I didn't expect to see you here, Miss Takamachi. You will need to return to the Hufflepuff table if you wish to retrieve your timetable."

"Got it!" Vivio said, hopping straight up. "Have a good day, Harry!"

"You too!" Harry called, smiling at the girl's retreating figure.

"Why'd a Hufflepuff want to come to the Gryffindor table?" Ron asked, staring blankly at the spot which Vivio disappeared to.

"She's my friend," Harry said, "and she doesn't think of herself as 'a Hufflepuff.' I mean sure she's in the Hufflepuff house, but she told me that the Hat said that she was a good fit for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as well."

"I guess that makes sense. Still doesn't mean she should be hanging around the Gryffindor table," Ron said, raising an eyebrow a the Hufflepuff table. "I mean, the Hat said I could be an okay Hufflepuff, and I'm not going to go hang around he Hufflepuff table any time soon."

"Really?" Harry asked, deciding to make a point. "I am; probably at lunch, if I can work it out."

"What? Why?" Ron asked, voice rising. "You're a Gryffindor, not a Hufflepuff!"

"Like Vivio," Harry said, rather amused at Ron's persistence, "I don't identify as 'a Gryffindor,' though I am a member of the Gryffindor house."

"You're mental," Ron said.

Deciding he wasn't going to get anywhere with that, Harry decided to turn his attention over to Neville, who was within hearing distance of the entire conversation.

"Did that make sense to you, Neville?" Harry asked, trying his best to put on a reassuring smile that told Neville that it wouldn't be a problem if it didn't.

"Kind of," Neville said sheepishly. "I mean, I think I get it. Just because you're a Gryffindor doesn't mean that you should ignore the part of you that would have gotten you into another house? I guess that mean you could have been sorted into a house other than Gryffindor, then?"

"Yep; the Hat said I could have ended up in any of them," Harry said, ignoring the incredulous look both Neville and Ron gave him. "What about you, Neville?"

"W-well..." Neville said, doing his best to not let his shock show on his face. This was to say he wasn't doing a terribly good job of it at all. "The Hat said that I'd make a good Hufflepuff, too..."

"There you go," Harry said, nodding. "Now I don't expect you to go ignoring your Hufflepuff traits just because you were sorted into Gryffindor, alright?"

"Yeah," Neville said, nodding weakly.

"How about you, Ron?" Harry asked, turning to the redhead in question.

"I guess..." Ron said, with his mind clearly on a completely different matter entirely.

"Great! So do you two want to come with me to eat lunch at the Hufflepuff table today?" Harry asked.

"Of course, Harry!" Neville practically shouted, positively shocked and delighted that Harry Potter would ever invite him to join in on something. This drew about several looks, causing Neville's face to go scarlet as he became very interested in his timetable.

"Sure," Ron said dismissively. "Hey, when you say any house you weren't talking about Slytherin, right?"

"I don't see why I wouldn't," Harry replied casually, and was a bit annoyed to see that the expression on Ron's face had darkened considerably.

"But you can't be a Slytherin!" Ron all but yelled, following Neville's lead on grabbing the attention of everybody within hearing distance. "You're the hero of the wizarding world!"

"I don't see why that doesn't mean I can have some Slytherin traits," Harry said, frowning.

"All dark wizards come from Slytherin!" Ron said by way of explanation, and Harry couldn't help the sigh that he let escape.

Of course they would all turn to the so-called "dark arts" if that is how everybody treated them; it was a sort of self-sustaining belief. The more people that believed that about Slytherin students, the more Slytherin students would be forced to make it true, which would cause more people to believe it, and it would never really end.

Harry was familiar with the concept, if only in theory; it was a common theme in the early days of the war against Belka.

Mid-Childa would act on the belief that the people of a specific world were loyal to Belka and refuse assistance to or from them. This had, of course, left the only options for these worlds to be turning to Belka for help, making the war all the more difficult.

It was unlikely Mid would have ever won if they stopped thinking like this, and Harry wasn't about to repeat that mistake for something as petty as what dorm somebody sleeps in.

Unfortunately, he had no good arguments for this that didn't involve Dimensional Space.

"Whatever you say," Harry said grudgingly. He certainly wasn't letting the matter drop any time soon. "I didn't end up being sorted into Slytherin anyway, so does it really matter?"

"I guess not," Ron said with a shrug, and while Harry was pleased to see he looked thoughtful there was no guarantee he was on the right train of thought.

Time would tell, Harry decided.

"We can talk with the Hufflepuffs about sitting with them for lunch soon," Neville spoke up. "We have Transfiguration with them right after this."

A quick scan of Harry's timetable revealed that was indeed the case.

"Well, that's convenient," Harry said, looking at the schedule with a raised eyebrow.

"We have Herbology with them too," Ron mused. "That's Wednesday, though."

"Huh," Harry mused, looking up and down the schedule. "Charms and Defense with the Ravenclaws."

"Which means we have History and Potions with the Slytherins," Ron groaned, hitting his head against the Gryffindor table hard enough to make a decent level of noise.

"Oh please; I'm sure the table's done nothing to deserve that," Hermione Granger said from where she sat across said piece of furniture. Perhaps it was the matter-of-fact tone of voice in which she said it, but neither Harry nor Neville could contain their laughter at the statement.

Ron hit them with his best glare, but it was obvious that he was close to laughter as well. The only think keeping him from doing so was probably the idea of having classes with the Slytherins.

Harry had a lot of work to do with him.

* * *

It was an excited Vivio Takamachi that plopped down into a seat in the Transfiguration room. Up until this point any Terran magic she'd seen had been done in the past or didn't have any visible effect, so this would be the first instance of Terran magic really seen by a member of the TSAB. Harry sitting next to her only made her more excited.

"Don't you have friends in Gryffindor?" Vivio asked halfheartedly, raising an eyebrow in the direction of the two boys she saw him sitting with in the Great Hall.

"Well, yeah," Harry said, shrugging, "and I get to talk with them whenever we're in our Common Room, so here I am."

"Oh, don't get smart with me," Vivio said, childishly sticking her tongue out at the boy. "I was just asking."

"You aren't one to talk," Harry countered, rolling his eyes. "Where's Professor McGonagall, anyway?"

Vivio tilted her head to the side, and a quick scan of the room revealed that there were no adults in the room. However, there was a cat with strange marks underneath it's eyes that resembled glasses, scanning the room with a no-nonsense look in it's eyes. In fact, it was a very similar no-nonsense look to that which was in Professor McGonagall's eyes at the opening feast.

"She's an Animagus," Vivio said, turning to Harry with a look nothing short of beaming. ;;Maybe she can teach us how to do it.;;

"Really?" Harry asked, and in a moment his eyes were on the cat in front of him. "I mean, I can see a sort of resemblance, but are you sure?"

Vivio stared at the cat intently for a few seconds, and did little enough to hide this that the cat noticed and returned the gaze. The look in the cat's eyes was very human, so if it wasn't the professor then there was an unidentified animagus in the room.

In fact, the look in it's eyes was the same as the look that many of the teachers in St. Hilde gave to the trouble students of a class.

This raised the question of what Vivio did wrong to earn this look, and she began to frantically scan her mind for what it could have been. At St. Hilde Vivio had never earned herself such a look - in fact she was quite possibly one of most of the teacher's favorites - and so to have done so without even knowing how was quite distressing to the young girl.

The moment the cat transformed into Professor McGonagall that look because all the more obvious on her face, before she averted her gaze from Vivio altogether to address the rest of the class.

"Ten points to Hufflepuff for your attentiveness," the stern woman said briskly, "and five points to Gryffindor for being sure to check the information given to you."

;;What's that about?;; Harry asked, frowning as he looked at the black haired woman.

;;Not a clue,;; Vivio admitted. ;;I don't think she likes me very much.;;

;;What do you mean?;;

;;Her eyes,;; Vivio said, looking down at her desk as the woman makes a speech on how Transfiguration is one of the most dangerous forms of magic, and anybody misbehaving in class will be kicked out. ;;She expects me to cause trouble at any time, and I think she may have just threatened me.;;

;;WHAT!?;; Harry's voice screeched through Vivio's head, causing her to visibly cringe. ;;Sorry, but do you really think that she threatened you?!;;

;;She just said that anybody caught doing something breaking the rules will be kicked out of class,;; Vivio said, not able to stop from staring in awe as she watched the teacher turn her desk into a pig, ;;and she thinks that I will. She was either threatening or warning me.;;

;;I don't think that's what she meant,;; Harry said, and Vivio could tell that he wasn't so sure, ;;It was probably just a warning to all of us. I think that you're just looking too much into it.;;

;;I really hope you're right,;; Vivio said. ;;At any rate, we have to take notes now. If you were better at telepathy this wouldn't be a problem, but...;;

;;I'm trying!;; Harry insisted, then sighed as Vivio's gaze turned to the ground. ;;I'm sorry, but you know I've been trying.;;

;;I know,;; she admitted, and Vivio could do nothing if not bounce right on back. ;;I don't know why brought it up, and I shouldn't have. Now stop being lazy and write your notes!;;

Harry let out a snort of laughter and the next nearly thirty minutes were spent writing down what McGonagall was both saying and writing on the board. Whenever she thought Vivio wasn't looking, the professor would turn her gaze towards her with the same look of distrust as she held at the beginning of the class. Harry even started to agree with some of the girl's less outlandish assumptions as soon as he saw it for himself.

After that thirty minutes was up they changed gears, and instead the students tried to change a match stick into a needle. Vivio was having a hard time concentrating with the looks that the professor kept throwing at her at her (at this point Vivio was fairly certain that the woman wasn't doing it on purpose), and so by the end of class her needle hadn't changed at all.

This wasn't as embarrassing as Vivio would have thought it would have been, because Hermione and Harry were the only ones whose match sticks showed any signs of change as the class ended. Harry's had become pointed at the end, while Hermione's was both that and silver in color. These instances had brought about a smile from the normally stern professor, which had disappeared as soon as she looked in Vivio's direction.

The nervous question finally escaped Vivio's lips after they exited the class.

"Why does she hate me so much?"

"I don't think she hates you," Harry said, still sounding quite annoyed towards the professor. "I think that she just thinks you're going to cause trouble."

"But why?" Vivio asked. "I mean, I haven't done anything yet!"

"Yet," Susan repeated, grinning. "You should be glad she didn't hear you say that."

"Does it matter?" Vivio asked, shaking her head. "I'm already the bad guy according to her. What's a stupidly worded question after that?"

"Oh, I don't know; you could confirm whatever it is she happens to believe about you," Susan said, rolling her eyes. "Really Vivio; if you want to win her over you can't be so careless."

"I don't want to win her over!" Vivio snapped, punching the wall hard enough to send several cracks shooting out from the point of impact. When she spoke again it was in a quiet, shaky voice. "I just want to know what I did wrong..."

"I have no idea," Harry admitted, and for a few seconds there was silence. ;;Well, I can think of one thing you did wrong.;;

;;What?;; Vivio asked, turning to Harry with a hopeful expression. She was eager to figure out what it was and fix it, because having a teacher look at her like that just felt wrong to the girl.

The moment she laid eyes on him, though, it became clear that Harry was no longer talking about the same thing as they were. More so when he pointed to Susan, who looked nothing less than gobsmacked. It took but a moment for Vivio to realize why, when she turned to see the damage her punch had done to the wall.

In that moment Vivio was more mortified then she ever remembered being in her life. It took one day for her to ruin everything, and for what? Because a teacher didn't like her? Sure, being in (increasingly rare) unfamiliar situations like that turned the girl into an emotional train wreck, but that didn't mean she should have punch the wall that hard!

It took everything the girl had to hold back her tears. She kew that she was going to be pulled off the mission for that. Everybody had stressed to her how important it was for the mission that she kept the knowledge of Mid and Belkan magics a secret, and it didn't take a genius to see that she was doing a terrible job of that!

She could only glad that the rest of the class had run off in different directions to go do whatever it was they wanted to, because she was close enough to having a panic attack with just one witness!

Oh, how could she be so stupid!?

"V-Vivio, calm down!" It was Susan that said this, and somehow the way she said it helped Vivio do what the redhead asked of her. "What's the matter? I mean, McGonagall can't be bother you that much."

"W-what?" Vivio asked, turning to Susan in astonishment. She had just left cracks in a stone wall by merely punching it, and Susan was talking about how their teacher had treated her!

What was going on?

"That!" Susan said, motioning to the crack. "I mean, that's a bit of an extreme case of accidental magic just because a teacher doesn't like you!"

Accidental magic?

Vivio stared at the girl blankly for a moment as her mind processed that. Yes, accidental magic happened when people were really stressed out, and could easily explain how Vivio punching the wall resulted in so much damage to it.

After all, Harry released a giant snake during one bout of it, and Vivio was sure putting cracks in a wall didn't top that by any means. If Vivio could play her cards right, she'd get out of here without the slightest bit of suspicion!

"Well..." Vivio stopped a moment to censure out anything about Mid-Childa, "at my old school all of my teachers liked me, so it's just..."

"I get it," Susan said, smiling soothingly at the blonde girl. A facial expression that didn't match the tone of her next words at all. "It doesn't help that Professor McGonagall isn't handling the situation right! She should at least tell you what you did wrong! It's the proper way of dealing with that sort of thing; I would know!"

"Yeah," Vivio agreed, unable to hold back the small smile toward the other girl. She would know, huh? "It's not a problem, though. All she's done is glance at me so far. If it gets worse I can just ask her what I did wrong."

"Well, there you go!" Susan cheered, patting Vivio on the back. "Now, we have a few hours before lunch. What do we do?"

"Oh!" Harry said, as if remembering something for the first time. "Me, Ron and Neville all wanted to sit at the Hufflepuff table with you guys today, if that's okay with you."

"First of all; not guys," Susan said, grinning at Harry's sheepish look, "but sure! I don't see a problem with it, at least. Of course, I'll have to go see what Hannah and Megan think, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Oh yeah, how about you Vivio?"

"I'm okay with it," Vivio agreed with a small giggle, throwing Harry an especially grateful look.

"Okay then!" Susan beamed. "Now, what do we do until then?"

"You should go check on Daphne," Vivio said, turning serious. "Who knows how the next week will be for her."

"Right," Susan said with a small nod.

Susan quickly said her goodbyes to Harry and Vivio before she ran off, and Vivio finally let out a sigh of relief when she was out of sight.

"That was too close," Vivio whined, mentally berating herself once again for her mistake.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it," Harry said, and he didn't give Vivio any more time before adding, "Do you want to go practice some spells?"

That was an idea that Vivio was more than happy to comply with, and so the next few hours were spent with the two trying to cast several of the spells on Harry's list. Vivio was pleased to note that Harry was picking up Terran magic as quickly as Vivio had Belkan, and by the time they needed to head out to lunch he had managed to cast successful disarming and stunning charms. That wasn't to say that they were terribly impressive instances of those charms, but they would do the job required of them in most cases.

Vivio, however, was having no such luck. Very few of the spells she casted did what she wanted them to do, and the ones that did were far too weak for her liking. Her levitation charm, for instance, only made her quill twitch a bit on the table, and disarming charm only made Harry's wand nudge around in his hand a bit.

Still, the training session had done exactly what Vivio imagined Harry wanted it to, and took the Belkan girl's mind off of Professor McGonagall for the time.

No matter what anybody said, training would always be Vivio's pastime.

* * *

The rest of the classes went by much better for both of the TSAB's citizen collaborators, as none of the other teachers singled either of them out as McGonagall had Vivio.

This was surprising to them after hearing about how Professor Snape treated Gryffindors, but after having their first potion's classes the two decided that he seemed to be far too distracted by something to be his usual self.

Professor Flitwick quickly became Vivio's favorite professor, and Harry could very well see why. He was a small man who was immensely entertaining throughout his lessons, and just had an air about him that kept both children listening to what he said. Harry was rather disappointed that the man was mainly giving them notes and having them practice wand movements instead of actually casting spells, but decided that it was as good of a teaching style as any.

Harry himself would be quick to admit that Professor Lupin was his favorite professor.

The man had a rather unorthodox teaching style that Harry enjoyed, and it became abundantly clear during the first class that it would be the one that Harry was going to do best in.

The first year Gryffindor and Ravenclaws had hardly taken their seats before a large number of sparks started flying across the room from the back of the class. Harry immediately hit the ground, as he was taught to by Vivio, and shot the first spell that came to his mind at the source of the sparks.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Stupefy!"

The two spells seemed to hit empty air, until a cry was heard and Professor Lupin hit the floor.

The man was hardly visible - hidden by what appeared to be a silvery cloak in some places - but it was clear that he was unconscious. Harry was so shocked by the scene that he forgot about his own spell and let the man's wand hit him right in the face by accident.

To everybody's surprise the caster of the Stupefy spell was Hermione, who was getting herself worked up over the fact that she attacked a teacher. Daphne wasn't doing much to help this by congratulating her on casting such a good stunner.

Of course, this thought pattern only made the muggleborn even more panicked.

It was Stephen Cornfoot who finally took the initiative by kicking the professor lightly in the side to get him to wake up. That was simply too much for most of the kids in the class, who greeted the newly reawakened professor with a roar of laughter.

"Well, that was fun," the man muttered, and from his tone Harry got the idea that he wasn't about to punish any of the parties involved. "Who was it that casted the stunner?"

Hermione's hand slowly raised into the air, although the action was completely unnecessary. Almost half the class was pointing at her, and the girl's face went red from both the attention and embarrassment as she turned her gaze to the ground.

If she looked up she would have seen that the man was in no wan angry, and even looked a bit pleased.

"Well then, ten points to Gryffindor," the professor said, causing the girl's head to snap up to look at him. "That was an impressive stunner for your age. Nowhere near the best, mind you - a good one would have needed more to revive the target than a few light kicks - but you shouldn't even be able to cast that yet. Now whose was the disarming charm?"

Once again half of the class was pointing, but this time Harry was rightly their target. The boy just grinned sheepishly at the teacher, who he noticed got a faraway look in his eyes for a moment before it was replaced with pure mirth.

"Well I'm not surprised by that at all," the man said with a smile that carried an emotion that Harry found he really couldn't identify. "Now, everybody take your seats."

Every student in the class obeyed, and the man began walking towards the front of the class to begin his lesson. Before he made it all the way there, though, he stopped right next to Harry's desk and held his hand open to Harry as if he expected the boy to give him something.

"My wand, if you would," the man said with a grin, and Harry sheepishly returned what was requested of him. "Thank you, Harry."

The fact that he used Harry's first name was not lost on the boy, who watched the man continue to the front of the room with a raised eyebrow. The professor, however, went on unaware of his student's confusion and wrote Expelliarmus on the board, turning to grin at the class.

"Well, as it happens, today you will be learning to cast the disarming charm," said the professor, eyes dancing in Harry's direction. "Funny how that works, huh?"

"Huh," Harry agreed, causing Professor Lupin to laugh.

"Well then. Miss Granger, is it safe to assume you can cast the disarming charm as well?" When he received a very eager nod as reply the professor grinned. "Well then, can I ask you and Mr. Potter to help me teach your peers how to cast the charm?"

"Of course!" the bushy haired girl said, seeming more than eager to help (or possibly prove that she was better than) her peers.

"I guess," Harry shrugged. He wasn't really confident in his ability to teach, but he wasn't going to turn down the offer to help the others. The last thing he needed was to look like he though himself better than them, when he by no stretch of the imagination did.

"Well then, do you two think you could give us a better presentation of the disarming charm in action?" the teacher asked, motioning the two to the front of the room. "I daresay everybody was too focussed on your stunner earlier, Miss Granger."

The two first-years had then dueled, if one could call it that, and Harry came out victorious. The rest of the class was spent with him, Professor Lupin and Hermione walking between the other students and correcting whatever they happened to be doing wrong. A good quarter of the first-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws could cast the spell well by the end of the class, and the rest weren't all that far behind.

Because of that experience, Harry was sure to use most of his free time practicing spells, with Vivio joining him more often than not. He was pleased to see that he was consistently doing much better at it than Vivio, although Harry would be quick to admit that it was a small victory, since the girl's overall magical knowledge and abilities dwarfed his own by far.

The only class the neither of the children - or any of the others, for that matter - ever enjoyed was History of Magic, which was taught by Professor Binns.

The man was a ghost with a bad habit of droning on and on about a single topic and losing everybody but Hermione's attention by the end of class. Combine this with how boring the history of the wizarding world was compared to Dimensional Space, and Harry really couldn't bring himself to care about the class at all.

The worst part was that Binns didn't care what happened in the class, and because of it Ron and Draco got into a bit of a row that ended up in Harry accidentally offending the blonde boy or something. No matter how much Harry tried to apologize the other boy wouldn't listen, and Harry eventually gave it up for a lost cause.

It didn't help that he never understood what he'd done wrong.

There was still an upside to the professor's attitude. Since Harry wasn't going to pay much attention to the class anyway, he could use this time to talk with Vivio over telepathy for practice. So, in the end, he would learn something in History of Magic, just not what Professor Binns was teaching.

Neither of them were too terribly interested in Herbology, but they paid attention and thought they did well enough in it. It helped that the two of them could understand why it was important that they were learning it, with Potions using a lot of the plants they would be learning about for ingredients.

The last class on the list was Astronomy, and Harry didn't like it for the sole reason that they needed to be there at midnight on Wednesdays, on the top of the tallest tower in Hogwarts. Not only was it a terribly long walk, but Harry was already exhausted before even setting out on the trek.

Vivio was fine with this aspect of it, but found it to be a terribly boring class due to how little Professor Sinistra actually knew about celestial bodies. It was never so clear that wizards didn't care about anything muggle as it was listening to some of the incorrect things she said in that class.

Before they knew it Saturday had turned up, which was the day that they were to send in their weekly report to the Claudia.

* * *

Chris was flying around the empty classroom wildly, and Vivio didn't really have any good reason to stop him. He had, after all, been cooped up in her pocket all week. Since the classroom they were in wasn't used for any classes, the girl doubted the likelihood of anybody walking in on them.

It was only a few minutes before Harry joined them, and Chris showed his affection to the boy by floating over to him and kicking him in the face. Vivio felt that she did a rather good job of hiding her laugh as a cough, but she had to reconsider with the light glare that Harry sent in her direction.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," Vivio said, grinning at him. "Ready to do this?"

"I don't see why I wouldn't be," Harry said with a shrug. "So, how are we going to stop anybody from waking in on this? That wouldn't be fun."

"It could be funny, though," Vivio said, grinning at Harry's rolling eyes. "But yeah, I agree with you completely. That is why I made sure to let Chris out. Go, Chris, go!"

The little plush bunny looked up from where it was playfully kicking at a fat gray rat and saluted Vivio. Mere seconds later he sent out a burst of the girl's signature multi-colored magic, and when it passed through Vivio everything in the room - except for the living creatures - turned to a shade of either black and white. She could tell that Harry experienced the same thing when he let out a yelp from behind her.

Vivio may have forgotten to tell him what was going to happen.

"This is a Force Field, Harry!" Vivio said, turning and beaming at the boy. "There's no chance of anybody walking in on this now. They can enter the room, but they wouldn't be able to interact with us, or even anything else that's in color here."

"Good thinking," Harry said. "I thought Force Fields were only used for combat, though."

"Not at all," Vivio said, tilting her head to the side in thought. "Well most are, but this one is one that the teachers at St. Hilde use whenever they need one for something. It wouldn't last too long in a fight where large amounts of magical energy is used, but it'll serve this purpose good enough."

"Then wouldn't it be easy for somebody to break into it?"

"If they could figure out it was there, yeah," Vivio admitted, setting up a holo-screen with Chris as she spoke. "The Headmaster said that it was rare for a witch or wizard to sense magic, so I'm thinking he may be the only one in the school who can do it. Besides us, of course."

"Maybe a few of the other professors," Harry offered. "Rare doesn't mean only one person, and I think the teachers are probably all pretty powerful."

"Point," Vivio granted with a sigh. "I just hope McGonagall doesn't manage to find us. The last thing we need is her suspicious of the entire TSAB."

"Agreed," Harry said with a nod. "Is there anything else you can do to make this more safe?"

"Not at all!" Vivio said with a small grimace that was well disguised as a smile. "My core isn't attuned to support magic, so this is really the best I can do."

Vivio could tell that Harry wasn't pleased with that (which was a sentiment that she could agree with), but ignored it in favor of connecting to the Claudia.

She brought up the screen for the video messaging as she was supposed to, but when she tried to connect she got nothing but static. Not one to give up, Vivio continued her attempts to set up the connection with no more success than the first time.

"What's going on?" Vivio asked, looking wide-eyed at the screen. The girl had a good idea of how the setup worked despite not having ever done it herself, and she had done everything she was required to do.

It was a few minutes of desperate attempts to make it work before Harry spoke.

"Hey Vivio, remember how the Hat said that Godric - Gryffindor, I mean - didn't like Belka?" Harry asked, and Vivio nodded to show him that she did. "The current form of Telepathy was adapted from the one that the Belkans used, wasn't it?"

"It's the same, actually," Vivio said, and then what Harry was trying to say hit her. "You think Godric somehow found a way to shield the school so that Telepathic messages couldn't make it in or out."

"Godric or one of the other Founders," Harry said with a nod. "The Hat made it sound like Slytherin was the only of the founders that wanted to work with Belka, or whatever was going on back then."

"Yeah!" Vivio cheered, glad to hear that she hadn't done anything wrong with setting up the connection. Then it hit her that there was no way to get in contact with the TSAB, which served to completely kill her good mood. "What do we do, then?"

"Owls carry mail, don't they?" Harry asked with a grin. "Well, I'm sure Hedwig wouldn't mind a bit of exercise."

"Right!" Vivio jumped to grab her quill and parchment, and realized with no small mount of embarrassment that she didn't bring them with her. "Uh, you wouldn't happen to have..."

"Got it," Harry said, correctly guessing what Vivio wanted and placing them on the table near her.

"Thanks!" she chirped, dipping the quill into the pot of ink and doing nothing more as she thought of what to write.

"Give it to me," Harry said, grinning slightly at Vivio's look of indignation. "I'm more Slytherin than you, and we're going to have to dance around a lot of things in that letter."

Vivio simply raised an eyebrow as she handed the quill to the raven haired boy, who sat in complete silence for a few moments before he began to write. There were several times that he'd just freeze mid-sentence before writing some more, and even when he was writing he was in the deepest level of concentration she'd ever seen him.

Evidently his Slytherin traits didn't come to him too terribly easy.

After several minutes he placed the quill down and let out a sigh of relief. He then slid the letter over to Vivio and shrugged, as if to say "that was the best I could do." Vivio didn't waste any time getting to see what the fruit of Harry's Slytherin side's labor.

_Dear Uncle Graham_

_I want to apologize for bothering you with this letter, but we want to get a message to Fate and you're the only one I can think of who lives close enough for Hedwig to get to. I tried using another form of communication, but it doesn't seem to work while in the castle._

_Yes the school's a castle. I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but it's full of things like moving pictures, and trick doors and staircases. There are even ghosts here. It's really different from what either of us are used to. _

_Hayate was right when she said magic is absurd._

_The classes are mostly interesting, even if the Transfiguration teacher doesn't like Vivio. Neither of us know why, but she hasn't done anything other than look at her suspiciously once in a while, so it's not that big of a deal. I just think that she believes Vivio will be a troublemaker. _

_Still, I can't excuse her for making Vivio emotional enough to preform accidental magic. She punched a wall hard enough to put cracks in it! Luckily there was only one person with us, and she recognized it for what it was. We don't need any rumors about Vivio being stronger than she actually is._

_The rest of the teachers are fine to us, so there's no reason to worry about any of them._

_The Sorting Hat knows about DS, which is really weird. Unfortunately we couldn't question it since we were in front of everybody in the school. We figured that you'd want to know that._

_There's more to talk about but my hand is starting to hurt. I'll need to wait until next time I get in contact to talk about that._

_Sincerely,_

_Harry_

_PS: Ask Fate what she learned about that project we talked about before getting on the Hogwarts Express. That would probably make things easier._

Vivio placed the letter down with a smile. It wasn't the most elegant letter, but it was much better than she could have written. She never had to read or write a letter before, since the main form of communication on TSAB worlds were voice messages. Then again, it was very likely that Harry'd never read or wrote a letter before, either.

That thought, while making the letter in front of her rather impressive, only really made Vivio feel bad, and so she pushed it to the back of her mind. There was one thing that she didn't get in the letter that she decided to focus on instead.

"DS?" she asked, eyebrows shooting into her hairline.

"Dimensional Space," Harry said, grinning sheepishly. "I figured that if anybody were to intercept it they would mistake it for a person's initials."

"Makes sense," Vivio nodded in agreement. "How do we know that Fate won't make that same mistake, because I did?"

There was moment of silence as Vivio waited for Harry to think of something to say, and from the look on his face he wasn't close to doing so. Evidently this wasn't something that he'd worried about during the writing of the letter.

"At least it's there," Harry eventually said with a shrug. "If they don't get it then we can clear it up later."

"I guess," Vivio grinned. "Well, let's give this to Hedwig as soon as possible. Fate's going to freak when we don't report in."

"I'm actually glad I'm not on the Claudia right now," Harry agreed with a laugh.

Chris (who was keeping himself amused with the same rat as earlier) quickly took the Force Field down, and they immediately made their way to the Owlery. They were both glad that it was a Saturday, because this ended up being one of the hardest things for them to find in the castle, taking them nearly an hour to locate it.

Then again, the reason for this could easily be that most of the kids were spending time outside of the castle, so there was nobody to ask for directions.

Hedwig seemed nothing short of delighted at the idea of taking a letter to somebody, and hooted eagerly as Harry tied the parchment to her leg. Vivio considered writing letters to people to keep the snowy owl happy, but she couldn't think of anybody nearby she could write to. There was her grandparents, aunt and uncle, but they were in Japan, and wouldn't be able to read Mid-Childan script anyway.

She decided to figure out what to do about that later, because she needed to focus on figuring out a better way to send reports to the TSAB.

This school wasn't going to make anything easy, was it?

* * *

A/N - And with the end of this chapter I'm free! No more introducing Hogwarts or the staff or the classes or anything else you probably already know! From this point on I have free reign! Those poor, poor characters aren't going to know what hit them!

Now that I'm done being evil, I'll outright come and say that this chapter wasn't too fun to write. I will try my best to make the next chapters more interesting. It shouldn't be too hard, now that I've gotten through describing what Hogwarts will be like and can move onto the plot.


	7. The Marauders

Disclaimer: That thing saying that I don't own anything you recognize is still here. It never left. It never will leave, either. You shall never escape it.

* * *

The Marauders

"I really can't thank you enough for helping me with this!" Vivio said, grinning at the accompanying girl.

"And I can't tell you enough how annoying it is to hear you keep thanking me," Daphne deadpanned, but the small smile on her face ruined any image of her being truly annoyed.

"Sorry!" Vivio chirped with a small laugh. "It's just that I'm doing so badly in class..."

"...and you shouldn't be," Daphne finished, completely cutting the other girl off. "I mean, you have one of the best grasps on the theory in the year. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to cast most of the spells."

"That's what they keep telling me!" Vivio exclaimed, throwing her arms up in defeat. "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Calm yourself. You could easily be making a simple mistake," Daphne tried reassuring her.

Vivio shook her head. When it came to the practical parts of class Vivio was near the bottom in the year, but she was - as Daphne had pointed out - near the top when it came to theory. If she was making a simple mistake then she would have been able to correct it before it got as bad as it has.

"So, where is this classroom that you and Harry use?" Daphne asked, then seemed to realize something. "Why didn't you ask Harry to help you, anyway? He's near the top of the class. I think only Granger is doing much better, really."

"He thinks that he'd be a terrible teacher," Vivio said, allowing herself to giggle at her friend's antics.

"Let it never be said that Harry Potter isn't modest," Daphne said with a good natured shake of the head. "He's much better at it than Granger is, I can tell you that."

"I can imagine," Vivio said with a smile. While she had nothing against Hermione, the girl was terrible at explaining things to people who didn't understand the textbook, because all she does is quote the very thing that they didn't understand. "Anyway, the classroom is just up ahead!"

There was a moment of silence as the two girls traveled through the corridors of Hogwarts, examining the moving portraits and other things that lined the hallways. The suits of armor looked like they could very well start moving at any moment, and with the amount of magic that was integrated into them Vivio wouldn't be surprised if they did.

"Why are you just coming to me now, anyway?" Daphne asked. "It's been over a month since the start of the term."

Vivio smiled as she thought of that answer. She, being stubborn as she was, declared that she would wait until the beginning of October to ask for any help from anybody in regards to her spell casting, and hadn't wanted to prove herself wrong. Her training with Harry didn't count, because that was more often than not her helping him with something.

She could stick to that because there had never been a reason to rush to find a solution, since not many of the classes were grading the practical side of things, and Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy were the only two who made a very big deal of her not being able to cast spells that well.

Quite frankly, Vivio had stopped caring about the opinion of either bigot when they kept preaching the superiority of purebloods, even after Hermione kept beating them in every class.

Still, the graded work was starting to become more practical than theoretical in all the classes, including Charms (which remained Vivio's favorite class) so she wanted to work out whatever problem was plaguing her spell casting.

"Self-respect," was all that Vivio said openly, and Daphne seemed to accept that answer.

"As long as that doesn't turn into pride you'll be fine," Daphne said with a grin. "Wouldn't want to end up like my parents, would you?"

Vivio fidgeted. She hated conversations involving Daphne's parents, even if the girl herself was fine with it.

Honestly, Daphne was doing much better than Vivio thought she would. Since her sorting she hadn't received any word from her parents, even after sending letters to them. Astoria had sent a few back, but she knew as much as Daphne did about what their parents were thinking.

There was silence for a few seconds before another topic of conversation became visible to Vivio.

"There's the room!" Vivio cheered as she pointed towards a slightly open door directly in front of them.

"Good," Daphne said with a smirk. "My legs can't stand any more walking."

"Lazy!" Vivio chided, rolling her eyes at her spectacled friend in good nature.

As the two approached the room, though, it became obvious that it was being occupied. Two voices were arguing about something, and a silent agreement passed between Vivio and Daphne that they were going to eavesdrop, for Hannah would hex the both of them if they passed up a chance to get her more gossip.

"...the Dark Lord wants, Snivellus," a squeaky voice said, sounding rather irritated. "All you have to do is call him in and tell him what's going on."

"And here I was starting to respect you, _Wormtail_," the sardonic voice of Professor Snape rang out from the door. "Did you truly have to go use that old nickname of mine?"

"...I apologize, Snape," the man (Vivio presumed) known as Wormtail said, sounding as if the words were acid in his throat. "That doesn't answer my question."

"I don't recall you asking one," Snape said shortly. "Still, if you must know; Lucius would storm the castle if he learned his son was in danger. That isn't what the Dark Lord wants, is it?"

"No," Wormtail's voice said, brimming with uncertainly. That emotion was gone when he added, "The Dark Lord says that he wouldn't."

"He would," Snape countered simply.

"Are you claiming to know better than the Dark Lord?" demanded Wormtail.

"He's been gone for ten years," said Snape simply, sounding rather bored. "People change in that time."

"Like you!" Wormtail's voice sounded, by this point, as if he was finally reaching the end of whatever patience he had in the first place.

"Exactly," Snape laughed, disregarding any threat in the other man's tone. "As have you. I would have never imagined you with a backbone."

"But I do have one," Wormtail's cold voice managed to send a chill up both Vivio and Daphne's spines. "Now, tell Lucius everything that's going on, and that he'd better do everything I ask him to if he wants his son to live."

"...Yes, of course," Snape said, sounding quite amused. "It's your head if this plan goes wrong, not mine."

Footsteps started towards the door, and both Vivio and Daphne's faces paled. A quick scan of the hallway around them showed them that there was nowhere they could escape to, and so Vivio was forced to make a split second decision.

;;Chris, activate a Force Field now!;;

Immediately the burst of Vivio's magic surrounded them and they were in the black-and-white world of the barrier. It was at this that Daphne finally allowed herself to scream, and she drew her wand and scanned the surroundings.

"It's fine, Daph!" Vivio said, trying her best to sound calm. "That was me."

"How...?" Daphne asked weakly, and jumped as the door to the room flew open to let Professor Snape out, robes billowing behind him as always. Fortunately the Force Field was working and he - as black and white as the rest of the surroundings - didn't even notice the two girls standing right there.

Vivio used this chance to see into the room, and standing in the center of it was a short, fat man with a bald spot at the top of his head. The man was only there for a second, though, before being replaced by a large fat rat which scampered out of the room.

"We've got to tell somebody about this," Vivio said, shaking by this point. Not only had she just heard two people talking about killing somebody - one of the two a professor - but she'd been forced to use a barrier around somebody who didn't know about the TSAB.

At least it was a better reason for breaking that rule than because a teacher didn't like her, the rational part of her mind argued.

"Yeah," Daphne said, doing a pretty good job of sounding more calm than she actually was. "Then can you tell me how you did this?"

Accompanying that question was the rather amusing sight of Daphne flailing her arms around in an attempt to convey that she was talking about the Force Field. Vivio would have laughed at the sight if everything that was going on around them wasn't so serious.

"I can't, really," Vivio said meekly, gaze turning to the ground as Daphne looked at her incredulously. "It's not only my secret to tell, if that makes sense?"

"Well then, I suppose that's fair," Daphne said with a shrug. "Just so long as you're sure to ask whoever else it may concern if you can tell me."

"I will!" Vivio said with a nod.

She meant it, too. It would be much easier if she could tell a few of her friends about Dimensional Space and could be herself around them. Though it wasn't much of an act she was putting on around them, it was still hard to to so.

"Well then, who do we tell?" Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow (which drew Vivio's attention to the slight fear in the girl's eyes). "You're the leader as of right now, so you get the job of making all the choices. Have fun."

"Professor Lupin," Vivio said without missing a beat. "He's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, right? What do you think the name of that class is talking about?"

"Things like this," Daphne agreed. "Do you know where the Defense room is from here?"

"Yeah; not far," Vivio said, pointing in the direction she knew it to be in.

"Okay, so how are we going to do this?" Daphne asked, looking in the direction indicated and frowning.

"I take the Force Field down and we run as fast as we can in that direction," Vivio offered. "Unless you have a better idea."

"Not a one," Daphne said with a nervous shake of the head. "What have we gotten ourselves into, Vivio?"

"Hopefully something that won't be a problem for much longer," Vivio said with a tint of hope in her voice. "It was only a threat, after all. It can be stopped before anything happens."

"You seem to be forgetting that the killing wasn't part of the plan," Daphne said. "They are just threatening that to get Lucius Malfoy on their side."

Vivio's eyes widened as she realized Daphne was right. She'd been focused on the killing comment that she'd forgotten that they had another plan. One that Vivio hadn't managed to hear.

Perfect time for a panic attack, Vivio's mind thought.

"W-what is their plan, then?" her wide eyes scanned the area around them. "Did you hear what it was? I didn't! How can anyone stop a plan when they don't know what it is? Who knows if they could be dong something _right now_...!"

"Vivio, calm!" Daphne demanded, and Vivio was embarrassed to note a hint of laughter behind her words. "Everything will be fine. Professor Lupin will know what to do, I'm sure of it."

Vivio took a deep breath and nodded, thoroughly embarrassed. She was only glad that her panic attacks weren't half as long or frequent as they used to be. She remembered back when she was younger when the things were a daily occurrence, and honestly lasted much longer than they did now.

That wasn't important, though.

"Are you ready to go, then?" Vivio asked, fighting any sign of her embarrassment out of her voice. Daphne merely nodded her affirmation, and Vivio got ready for the run. "No hard feelings if I leave you behind?"

"Please don't," Daphne requested. "It'd be safer if we stuck together, especially since you can't cast spells very well. Not that I'm sure that's true now, but..."

"I _want_ to tell you," Vivio insisted, "I'm just not allowed! The sooner we can tell Professor Lupin what we just heard the quicker I can send Hedwig off with a letter asking for permission."

"I wasn't complaining," Daphne said with a raised eyebrow. "I'm ready to go."

"Then let's do it," Vivio said, and within a moment the Force Field was taken down.

Their sprint to Professor Lupin's office was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience for each of the girls.

Having to go at more of a jog than an actual run, Vivio felt as though she was more vulnerable than she had to be. This feeling was amplified by all the paintings they passed keeping their eyes on the two girls, holes large enough for the rat to fit into, and even the fear that Wormtail could figure out a way to use the suits of armor against them.

The worst thing about the trek, though, was that the halls weren't the most well-lit Vivio had ever been in. The Rat could easily be hiding in the shadows, waiting to ambush them.

The fact that the man had no way of knowing they overheard the conversation didn't do a thing to relieve any of their worries. What did bring about the relief they both desperately wanted was finally entering the Defense classroom.

There were no students in it of course - it was Saturday - but it was much more comforting than the hallways. There were no moving portraits, or anything else that would be mistaken for a threat in it; not even any mouse holes.

"I'll see if he's here," Daphne said, and without waiting for Vivio's response she went to the door next to the chalkboard and knocked several times.

The sight of Professor Lupin at the door threw out any lingering worries from the two girls' minds. Daphne even went so far in this as to fall into one of the nearby seats, which Vivio assumed was partly because the run was tiring to the young witch. Really, witches and wizards alike seemed to be rather physically inept. It was quite disconcerting for Vivio, being an athlete of sorts.

"Well, what do we have here? What's up, you two?"

Both Vivio and Daphne were taken aback by the friendly nature of the professor. He wasn't exactly strict during classes, but he was talking as if he was having a conversation with a friend of his, not some of his students. Vivio and Daphne looked at each other for a moment before nodding a mutual agreement to start their tale.

They each took turns saying something about what they heard, much like the Weasley twins would on a daily basis. What they were saying was hardly amusing, though. They told him that there were people with a plan in the castle who were working for a Dark Lord and wanted to recruit Lucius Malfoy onto their side, by threatening to kill the man's son.

By the end of their tale any sign of amusement was gone from Professor Lupin's face, as was any trace of color.

"This isn't a joke, is it?" the professor asked, sounding rather weary in his speech.

"We wouldn't joke about something like this, Professor," Daphne said with a frown.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't," the professor said with a sigh. "Did you happen to catch any names other than Lucius'?"

"Professor Snape was one of them," Daphne said matter-of-factly.

"I don't think Professor Snape would have anything to do with killing Draco," Professor Lupin said. "He's the boy's godfather, after all."

"I don't think he wanted it to happen," Vivio piped up. "He was trying his best to convince the other guy that it was a bad idea. He made comments about the plan not working if Lucius learned that his son was in danger and other stuff like that."

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense," Lupin admitted with a thoughtful nod. "Can either of you catch what the other man's name was, then?"

"I don't think it was said," Daphne said with a frown.

Vivio wracked her mind for the man's name, for she knew it was said during the conversation. It wasn't too hard to remember because of how strange it was, and Vivio piped up, "Wormtail!"

Professor Lupin promptly froze.

"Are you sure that's what you heard?" the professor asked, and Vivio noted there was a bit of pleading behind it.

"Yes, that was it," Daphne said with a nod. "I remember that he called Professor Snape Snivellus, too. I don't know if that means anything to you."

The professor took in a shaky breath and nodded his head. He got up and paced for a few moments before turning to the girls with a frown.

"I recommend you two get to your common rooms. They'll be the safest places in the castle for now," Professor Lupin demanded in a tone that told Vivio that any arguments would fall on deaf ears. "I need to go have words with the other professors and we'll decide what to do about this matter."

The two girls nodded and, taking that order as a dismissal, quickly scampered out of the room. Therefore, neither of them noticed Professor Lupin fall into the nearest chair and taking a very weary breath.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

The way the magic flowed through Harry's body as he casted a stunner was a fair bit different than a disarming charm, but the basic concept remained the same. Unfortunately for Harry it was hardly an easier feeling for him to capture, so he was forced to unload a barrage of the spell on a large rock he'd found on the Hogwarts grounds.

"I still don't see why you're doing this, mate," Ron said, staring intently at the rock as if he expected something to suddenly happen to it.

"That's because I haven't told you yet," Harry said, stopping when he felt he got a good feel for it. "Have I, Neville?"

"I don't remember you telling us, no," Neville admitted meekly.

Harry turned to the boy and smiled. He was a much different boy than the one Harry had met on the Hogwarts Express; he had much more confidence than back then.

Professor Sprout would openly admit that Neville was one of the best Herbology students she'd had in years, and Harry worked at helping him realize how that made him good at potions. He'd partner with Neville and pretend he didn't know what to do with a certain ingredient, and more often than not Neville would. It was rather good for the boy to know he could do something that the Boy-Who-Lived couldn't.

Whatever was keeping Professor Snape distracted was also playing a role in Neville's growing confidence, because he felt that the task would have been impossible otherwise.

"Well then tell us now," Ron all but demanded with the tact of a battering ram, causing Harry to laugh.

Ron, unfortunately, hadn't changed much yet, but Harry was working on it!

"I'll show you instead," Harry said, and attempted to push his magic through his body in the same way it went for the stunner, with a method for controlling magic that Vivio had struggled to teach him throughout September. It became clear it worked when a red shot erupted from his want without him visibly doing a thing.

"Blimey!" Ron shouted, staring at Harry's wand with wide eyes. "Do you know what you just did?"

"I have a pretty good idea, yeah," Harry mused, repeating the process several times. With each red bolt of magic it became easier for Harry to repeat this action.

"Merlin," Neville muttered, eyes even wider than Ron's. "Harry, you shouldn't be able to do that!"

"I don't see why not," Harry said with a frown as he shot off more spells at the rock.

"We aren't taught how to cast nonverbaly until sixth year!" Neville said, sounding nothing short of awestruck.

"Oh," Harry said quickly, bringing the barrage to an abrupt end.

It was at that moment he realized that practicing controlling his magic may have not been a good idea in front of somebody with little self-confidence and another with an inferiority complex. He tried to work out in his mind a way to deal with the situation, but was saved the effort when McGonagall's voice filled the Hogwarts grounds.

**"All students return to your common rooms immediately! I repeat; everybody return to your common rooms!"**

"What?" Neville asked, wide eyes turning towards the castle. "What do you think happened?"

"Haven't a clue," Ron said. "This could be normal, Nev. Don't worry about it too much."

Harry was sure this wasn't normal, for McGonagall's voice sounded a bit too distressed, but the part of him that wanted them to forget his accidental showing off didn't bring that up. The three only made it halfway to the castle when another voice rang out, this time in Harry's head alone.

;;Harry, what's the password to the Gryffindor Common Room?;;

;;Leonis Corde,;; Harry replied immediately. Fortunately he'd improved over the past month to the point where he could do most things other than talk while having a telepathic conversation, or else he'd most likely trip on something. ;;Why?;;

;;Thanks!;; was all that Vivio chirped out before the connection fizzled out, and Harry had to stifle a laugh. Vivio cold be rather weird at times, and when Harry thought about it, that was possibly one of the reasons that the two could get along so well.

The moment the group of three entered the castle it became clear from the confusion of the older kids that this was indeed not a normal occurrence. Harry was half tempted to ask Vivio if she knew what was going on, but everything around him was far too busy for him to focus on a conversation in his head.

Harry quickly found himself outside of the Gryffindor Tower, lost in a sea of Gryffindor students, all of whom were trying to enter the portrait hole at the same time. At least that's what he thought was going on, because his status as one of the shortest first-years kept him from being able to see anything around him.

"Everybody back! Away from the portrait hole!" the commanding voice of Professor Lupin rang out. "That it, back! Let me through, come on! Thank you, Miss Spinnet. Excuse me, Mr. McLaggen. Mr. Jordan, I _do_ have to get through whether you want me to or not!"

The one-sided banter continued, much to the general mirth of most of the collective Gryffindor house. For the moment any panic was forgotten, and Harry got that idea that Professor Lupin was hoping for that to happen with how pleased he sounded when he spoke again.

"Now then, please let all of the first-years through. Yes, that's right, the first-years go first. They're the smallest of you lot, so they can fit through you the easiest," Professor Lupin said, proving himself capable of being patient and commanding at the same time. It was rather impressive, Harry thought. "Yes, Messrs. Weasley, you need to let them through. No, being a perfect doesn't mean that you need to know what is going on, Percy!"

When Harry passed them, Professor Lupin and Percy Weasley were having a row over what sort of information a Perfect should have access to. He felt that the professor had a better argument, having been a perfect himself during his Hogwarts days, but Percy didn't seem to agree with Harry on that sentiment.

The moment he stepped into the Common Room a strange sight (at least for in the Common Room) presented itself that made Harry forget about the commotion behind him completely.

"Vivio?"

Indeed, the Hufflepuff first-year was sitting by the fire having a conversation with Hermione Granger, who had become something of a rival to Harry. She was the only one consistently beating him in all the classes but Defense, with only a few people occasionally doing better than either of them in a specific class (with an extreme case being Neville in Herbology).

Harry felt that the brightest witch of their year being sorted into Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw said a lot about how much the sorting meant about a person. To a lesser extent this applied to him as well.

"Hey Harry!" Vivio said, waving him over to a seat nearby her own. "I was just going over with Hermione that there isn't a rule against being in another house's Common Room."

"Even so, that doesn't mean you should be here _now_," Hermione argued. "Professor McGonagall said we should get back to our Common Rooms, and that means our _own_. I've talked to one of the older girls and she said nothing like this has ever happened while she's been at Hogwarts."

"McGonagall never said we had to go to our own Common Room," Vivio countered, sticking her tongue out at Hermione. "She just said that we had to go to a Common Room that students used."

Hermione was quick to let out a huff and stalked off towards the portrait hole. No doubt she was going to find out right then whether of not Vivio's presence was against the rules. Harry rolled his eyes before turning his sights towards his best friend.

;;So, what's up?;;

;;A lot, Harry,;; Vivio said ruefully, and proceeded to explain everything that had happened to Daphne and herself when the Ravenclaw girl was going to tutor the young knight in Charms.

;;Huh,;; Harry said with a raised eyebrow in the direction where Professor Lupin had begun to explain to the students what was happening (while leaving out as much as possible, of course). ;;So much for this being the safest place on Earth.;;

;;You can find a weakness in any building's defenses,;; Vivio countered with a frown. ;;The TSAB's main office on Mid-Childa is possibly one of the safest buildings on any world ever, but it went under a major assault when I was six. You know what I'm talking about, right?;;

;;The JS Incident,;; Harry confirmed with a nod.

;;So this can be the safest place on Earth,;; Vivio said, looking quite pleased that Harry got the question right, ;;it's just that nowhere's completely safe.;;

"Excuse me, Miss Takamachi."

Both children jumped, and they went on guard until they saw that it was Professor Lupin who spoke, standing behind Harry's chair looking at the two with an arched brow.

"Hello, sir," Vivio said with a mock-salute towards the man, and Harry was sure she was just as surprised as he was when the professor returned it. "What's up?"

"You understand that you were supposed to return to your common room, I believe," the man said.

"Professor McGonagall was talking to all the students when she made that announcement, meaning it referred to all of the common rooms," Vivio countered, and the next few seconds were taken up by her and the professor staring at each other.

Then the man then shrugged and turned his attention to Harry.

"Harry, I need to talk to you about something," said the professor who suddenly looked much more weary than he was seconds prior.

"Sure," Harry said. Realizing that the professor wanted to talk to him alone, he added, "I think my dorm is empty right now."

"Alright, come on you two."

"Both of us?" Vivio piped up. "I thought you just wanted to talk to Harry?"

"I do, but you two seem to be best friends, so anything I tell Harry will get back to you anyway," Professor Lupin said, smiling at the two with the same emotion that Harry couldn't identify during their first class.

Vivio beamed as she hopped up off of her chair and followed them to the boy's dorm. Once they were all in there the professor closed the door with a wave of his wand and started putting up some privacy wards. Harry could tell that they were there this time by how the magic of the room increased from it's already impressive density.

Soon Harry was sitting on his own bed, Professor Lupin on Dean's, and Vivio had practically jumped onto Ron's and was laying there, her legs kicking into the air above her.

"Alright, Harry," Professor Lupin said with a sigh. "When I was a student here I was in a group of pranksters called the Marauders."

Harry's brows furrowed. Why was he telling him this?

"Don't think I don't see that look," the professor said with a sad smile. "There were four members of this esteemed troupe. I was known as Moony, and was the brains of the operations who kept them from doing anything too stupid. The next member was known as Wormtail," he paused after saying this and turned to Vivio, who looked shocked. "Yes; Wormtail. He set stuff up mostly, since he was too unsure of himself to come up with plans."

"Being a rat animagus probably made him the best one for the job," Vivio agreed with a nod, and a small glint of hope that Harry hadn't previously noticed in the professor's eyes died out.

"Yes. Yes it did," the professor said, and there was a pause for several seconds. "The next member was called Prongs." Lupin looked unsure of how to proceed form here, and eventually settled on being blunt. "He was your father, Harry."

A number of emotions passed through Harry at that single moment. This was his father's friend. So was the person talking about murdering somebody. He can finally learn something about his father! Why wasn't Professor Lupin there for him earlier? He most likely had his reasons. Were there any that excused leaving him with the Dursleys? Maybe he didn't know how bad the Dursleys were. Why didn't he check in on Harry?

"Harry?" Vivio asked, frowning at him. "Are you okay?"

"Wha...Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said with an unconvincing smile. "Who was the last member?"

"Don't you...?" Remus paused, apparently seeing something in Harry's expression. "Right, then. The last member was a man named Sirius Black, also known as Padfoot."

"What was he like?" Vivio piped up. The was a short silence following this where Professor Lupin was thinking of what to say.

"He was a traitor if there ever was one," he said at last, looking quite uncomfortable, yet at the same time quite determined to say what he was about to say. It was, in other words, the look of a man who wanted to do something before he changed his mind. "He betrayed your parents, Harry. Gave their location to Voldemort. They'd be alive to this day if it weren't for him."

A wave of nausea swept through Harry. He'd thought it was just Voldemort that killed his parents, and to learn that one of his father's friends had something to do with it was heartbreaking and even a bit unnerving. How easy would it be for one of his friends - Ron or Neville, at least - to betray him? Not terribly easy, he reminded himself - he never told either of them anything that they could use against him - but the idea stood.

"What happened to him?" Vivio asked, tactfully avoiding Harry's inner-turmoil (for Harry knew she probably noticed it - she was too observant not to have).

"He was thrown into Azkaban - wizarding prison - and has been in there for the past 10 years," Lupin said, suddenly looking much older than he did before. "He would have been able to get away, but when You-Know-Who disappeared he went into a rage and killed twelve muggles and Pe..."

Something clicked in the young professor's mind, and his eyes widened to what would be comical proportions in a normal circumstance. He promptly slammed them shut and took a few deep breathes, which only made his shock more transparent.

"Killing twelve muggles and who?" Harry asked. Something wasn't right about this, and was going to learn what it was.

"And Peter Pettigrew," he said. Seeing their blank looks he clarified, "Wormtail."

"But he's here!" protested Vivio. "Padfoot couldn't have killed him!"

"Wouldn't that have come out in the trial, though?" Harry asked, and the look on the professor's face answered that question immediately.

There hadn't been a trial.

Vivio seemed to have come to the same conclusion, because she stared at the professor with wide eyes for several seconds of silence before exclaiming, "How could you have not fought for him to have a trial?! He was your friend, wasn't he?! Didn't the possibility that he was framed cross your mind even once!?"

"OF COURSE IT HAS!" the man roared, shocking both children into silence. "Of course it has," he repeated more calmly. "There isn't a day where it hasn't. The idea's always seemed like wishful thinking to me, thought. He even admitted to being their secret keeper when we asked him beforehand."

Neither of them dared to ask what a secret keeper was. They were both too stunned by the normally calm - kind, even - professor's outburst. It also wasn't lost on them that he had the look of a man who'd said too much, so they'd probably get very little else of relevance out of him.

"I've got to go," the man said at once. "There's going to be a staff meeting now that all the students are back in the Common Rooms. Miss Takamachi, you have my permission to stay in the Gryffindor Common Room for now. Harry, if you want to ask me about your parents, feel free to come to my office any time. Have a good day, you two."

Harry didn't know if the man actually expected them to have a good day after what they'd learned or not, but he was gone from the room too quickly for Harry to get a read on him.

"Well, this week's report is going to be fun to write, at least," Vivio said with a half-laugh.

Harry nodded absentmindedly to that, his mind on the case of Sirius Black. The man was his father's friend, who may have killed him, but never got a trial to prove whether he did or not. He didn't know what to think of the man other than that - regardless of whether the man did it or not - he shouldn't have been chucked into prison without a trial.

Harry hoped that this was a one time thing in the wizarding world, because otherwise he may have just tripped over one of it's major black spots.

He hoped this was the worst of them all.

* * *

A/N - I should point out that Snape purposely chose a room he knew was being used by students to practice for the meeting, and cast the privacy wards wrongly. I was going to address it in the chapter but I couldn't think of a good way to do it. Oh well, there it is.

I should also say, for the record, that I plan to make the villains in this story a threat. Too many Nanoha - Harry Potter stories are without a good threat to them, I feel.

I also feel that I should remind you all that Harry is a deuteragonist in this story, although he is just as important to it as Vivio is. She's still the main protagonist, not him.

Rennerd - My explanation for that is that they'd never had a good Defense professor except for Remus, and canon Harry was never one for self-study before that. It could be the most simple spell in the world, but who would teach it to them? Quirrell? Lockhart? Remus focused on dark creatures, not duels. I doubt Crouch would either, but that was the year he learned it, anyway. Besides, it wasn't even a _good_ stunner. If they needed somebody to spell him awake then it would have raised more fuss, but they didn't.

Windsong - What is this about only hexes, jinxes and curses being combat usable? I don't know if I remember it right off the top of my head, but I remember Albus using Transfiguration in the duel against Riddle in book five. If not, I can still make it combat-worthy. Charms could be used in combat as well, especially since those three you mentioned are pretty much just Dark Charms, anyway.

Nyamu - It's not that they aren't really friends with them, that's just the point when they slide into the corner of best friends. Therefore, I need to think of a way for the others to almost kill Vivio.

jgkitarel - There's more reason for Vivio's troubles than that, but it certainly isn't making matters any easier. It's a rather simple problem, really. I'm curious if anybody can figure it out.


	8. Familiar Familiars

Disclaimer: In my defense, I _really_ tried to not name the chapter this, but I simply could not help myself. Oh yeah, I still don't own anything you recognize.

* * *

Familiar Familiars

It was raining outside.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Lotte wanted to punt a puppy, although one could argue that her status as a cat familiar may have increased her ire towards the creature many people would call man's best friend.

She felt that the actual reason for her sudden desire to kick a cute, innocent animal was a much better one, though. Her father and sister had gone to the Claudia for TSAB business, leaving Lotte behind to wait from the report from Hogwarts. This event had occurred the previous day, and Lotte was sure they were doing this to mess with her by this point.

It was well into midday on monday - two days after the report should have come in - without so much as a word from the two children they had stationed at the school. Even Lotte had to admit that whatever was causing the delay probably wasn't good, since it wasn't like the Vivio she met to get lazy about something like this.

Still, that was no reason for them to leave Lotte in the house alone!

It was several minutes into this particular mental rant that the snowy white owl which had become an honorary resident of the house flew through the open window - which Lotte left open out of spite towards her family's treachery - and stared nipping at the familiar's ear playfully.

"Ah, there you are!" the cat cheered, petting the owl on the head. There were many people she blamed for this situation, and the beautiful owl was not yet one of them. "You're in for a treat this time, birdie!"

The owl tilted her head to the side, staring at Lotte as if she were waiting to be given something, only to receive a laugh in response.

"Not right now, you silly bird," Lotte said with a grin. "Soon, though!"

The bird seemed to accept that, and held out her leg for Lotte to take the letter from her. At first Hedwig wouldn't let Lotte get anywhere near her while she had a letter for her father, but he'd managed to convince the owl (with great difficulty) to allow either of his daughters to take a letter addressed to him.

"Now let's see what we have here," Lotte mused as she opened up the letter.

Not even halfway through the first paragraph and it became clear that something was indeed wrong at the school, and by the time she finished it her blood was nearly frozen. There was a potential murderer in the school that could turn into a rat. Was there a way to make him any more dangerous? He could be in and out before anybody noticed, claiming the life of his victim in an instant.

Suddenly Lotte found herself rather hungry, with a craving for a huge, fat rat.

The next paragraph brought about another emotion, but one that was just as negative. A man named Sirius Black - a friend of Harry's father, no less - was thrown into Azkaban without a trial. The TSAB had learned about Azkaban, and it wasn't a pleasant place by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, if this weren't a mission where stealth was imperative, they would have stormed the place in an instant.

As it was, they were trying to think of quieter ways to shut the prison down.

Fate was going to freak over this, Lotte mused. After all, if she hadn't gotten a trial Earth would have probably been destroyed in the Book of Darkness Incident, and if Hayate hadn't gotten a trial the TSAB would probably have been in tatters by the end of the JS Incident. As such, the woman was firm in her belief that everybody should be given a trial.

The next thing that the two children reported was a minor incident involving Vivio having to use a Force Field around somebody who didn't know about the TSAB, but Lotte thought that was completely justified, since Vivio had done it to potentially save both of their lives.

Fortunately the rest of the letter was devoid of anything out of the usual, because if it wasn't, they probably wouldn't be able to stop Fate from storming the castle. Lotte was amused that the two kids thought to throw all the bad stuff at them right at the beginning of the letter, but she certainly appreciated it. The rest of the letter would give Fate time to cool off before they started making decisions.

"Birdie," Lotte mused, resuming her petting of Hedwig's head "they're going to need your help with this. Make sure to demand _all_ the owl treats when you get back."

For her part, Hedwig looked delighted at the prospect of getting _all_ the owl treats.

"Well then, I have to go bring this to the others. Are you okay staying here?" Lotte asked, and was surprised when the owl imitated a nod as best she could. "Geez, you're a smart one. I'll be back in a couple minutes."

Hedwig hooted her affirmation - once again reminding Lotte that she was indeed a smart owl - and flew over to where some owl treats and a bowl of water had been set up, to begin her well-earned rest.

The upcoming meeting would be a fun one, Lotte knew, just because of the looks that would be on the others' faces. This is the thought that was flowing through the cat's mind as a blue Mid-Childan circle appeared underneath her and swallowed her up in a blanket of light.

* * *

"I wanna go outside!" Vivio whined, frowning at the constant assault of rain that the clouds had deemed necessary to unload upon the castle. Harry had to agree with her complaint, for they had been quarantined to the Gryffindor Common Room for the past two days, and now that they were finally allowed out there were no classes.

Harry knew that it was weird that he was complaining about the lack of classes, but he found that Hogwarts was just boring without them to give him something to do.

"Come on, we can probably go practice spells or something," Harry said with a shrug, although he was sure that he had already casted one too many spells that day as it was. "Maybe you should go see if Daphne is still willing to help you."

"I'm waiting for the reply from Fate-mama," Vivio said with a determined glint in her eyes. "I want to be able to tell Daphne about everything."

"And you're still not going to tell me why," Harry said with a nod.

"It's not for me to tell, Harry," Vivio said with a reproving frown.

"I wasn't asking you to tell me," Harry said with a small smile - there was his favorite thing about Vivio again. "I trust you, Vivio. If you think it's for the best to do, then go for it."

"A-are you sure?" Vivio stammered, staring at Harry like he was crazy. "I mean, you're my partner so..."

"I trust you," Harry insisted firmly. "If there's one thing I can say for sure about you, it's that you're the best judge of character I've ever met. If you say Daphne's trustworthy then I'm going to have to believe you."

Vivio just stared at Harry dumbly for a few seconds before a huge smile lit up the girl's face. "Thank you, Harry!"

"'For what? I was just saying the truth," Harry said with a shrug. "Hedwig should be here soon, if the other days are any indication, so it shouldn't be long before we can see if you have permission or not."

"Right!" Vivio said with a grin, which quickly transitioned into a frown. "You mean if we get permission, right? You plan to tell some of your friends, right?"

Harry was suddenly reminded about what Professor Lupin said about Sirius Black and fought to suppress a shudder. It wasn't that he suspected either Ron or Neville of planning something against him, but he didn't trust them well enough to tell them about the TSAB. It would be his fault if the mission became more difficult because of either of them, and that was the last thing his conscience needed.

"Nah, I wouldn't want to put that pressure on them right now," Harry said with a small shrug. Vivio took a moment to scrutinize him - causing him to take in a breath, knowing she wouldn't like his real reasoning - and shrugged.

"I guess that makes sense," she admitted with a neutral expression. "You know them better than I do, but I can tell that Ron would spend all his time thinking about it, wouldn't he?"

"Or get extremely jealous of me for already being a part of it," Harry said with a frown. The other boy wasn't vocal of his jealousy anymore, but it was easy to tell that it was still there.

"Yeah, or that too," Vivio said sadly. "I think Neville would be fine, though. Maybe it would even give him a bit of motivation!"

"Maybe," Harry said dismissively, causing Vivio to sigh. Harry was sure that the girl had figured out that something was bothering him, and was working for a way to confront him about it without bothering him even more.

Fortunately that confrontation was saved for later when a tapping sound reverberated through the empty classroom from one of the windows, and both children turned to see Hedwig sitting outside of it, waiting to be let in. Harry quickly scooted over to the window and opened it right up, extremely pleased at his pet for providing a decent distraction.

As had become the standard for these letters, Hedwig flew right over to Vivio and held out her leg. One of the previous times Harry had made the mistake of trying to take the one of the letters from his owl anyway, only to get several particularly painful nips to the hand for his effort. What surprised Harry, though, was that there was a second letter on Hedwig's other leg, and as soon as Vivio had her letter the owl flew right back out the window to deliver the remaining one.

"Wonder who that was for," Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"Who knows," Vivio said, voice telling Harry that she'd like to know as well. "Summarize it?"

"Summarize it," Harry agreed.

"Alright then," Vivio said, and went silent for a few seconds as she read the first paragraph. By the way her face lit up she obviously decided that she liked what was written. "We aren't to go chasing the rat," she said, and then grinned, "but if we encounter him anyway, we've been given permission to stop him by any means necessary. Even Mid and Belkan magics."

"Which I can't do," Harry said with a frown.

"Taunt him with telepathy while fighting," Vivio said with a grin. "If he's half as clumsy as you were the first few times, then that'll make the fight go in your favor right away."

"Of course," mused Harry, rolling his eyes as he spoke. "Anything else?"

"I'm reading," Vivio said with a roll of her eyes. "Huh, they're seeing if they can get Padfoot a trial. Apparently Uncle Chrono's good at politics, so Fate-mama thinks that he should probably be able to do it without revealing the TSAB."

Harry didn't know what to think about that. Although he knew better, he couldn't help but to have thought of Sirius Black as a bad guy for the past few days, which made him understandably less than excited for this news. Still, there was a part of him that hoped they would find that Sirius was innocent the whole time, just because he wanted there to be a friend of his father's that he could trust.

"No comment?" Vivio asked, raising her eyebrow.

"No comment," Harry agreed.

"Okay then," Vivio said with a sigh. Whatever brought about the sigh was gone from her mind as she read the next paragraph, if the look on her face was anything to go by. "In a month I can tell Daphne about the TSAB, as long as I still think I can trust her!"

"That's great!" Harry beamed.

"Yeah!" Vivio cheered in agreement as she went back to reading the letter. If Harry thought she couldn't get any happier after that news, he'd have been wrong.

"What does it say?" Harry asked when it became clear that Vivio wasn't going to say anything.

"It's time," she said with a forced mysterious voice. This came off more silly, and she shook her head good-naturedly when Harry started laughing. "Oh, shush. I'm serious, though; it's time!"

"Time for what?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Time to turn Hedwig into a familiar, silly!" Vivio said, cuffing Harry lightly on the back of his head. "How could you forget that already?"

"I didn't!" Harry said with a grin. "Is it really time?"

"Yeah!" Vivio chirped, returning the grin, full force. "They said they were planning to wait until Christmas so that they could supervise us, but with a murderous rat animagus running around in the school, they decided that it would be good to have a skilled huntress on our side."

"And Hedwig's the only skilled huntress they could think of?" asked a bemused Harry.

"Hey, it was her or Lotte," Vivio laughed.

"Right then," Harry said, returning the laugh. "I'll take that as a yes."

"You're really starting to fit in," Vivio said with an approving nod, which only increased the laughter of the room ever so slightly. When it calmed down, Vivio continued her original trail of thought with, "We have to have a professor we trust watch over us as we do it, though. They said that since it was just one spell it wouldn't do too much to give away the TSAB - just one of things we can do - so we shouldn't worry too much about that."

"Professor Dumbledore, then," Harry said with a nod, although he wasn't too comfortable with this idea. "He's the only one who'd been told the cover story."

"That we know of," Vivio countered. "I was thinking of Professor Lupin."

"What, why?!" Harry asked with a bit more force than he intended to. He realized this when Vivio cringed. "Sorry, but really? I mean, I would have expected Professor Flitwick, but Lupin?"

"He was a friend of your father's, Harry!" she said as if that explained everything. When Harry's face conveyed that it didn't, she added, "He's the defense teacher, which means - if trends last - he'll be out of the job by the end of the year. He could be a good ally for the future, and may even be able to work for the TSAB!"

Harry had to admit that she had a point. While the rest of the teachers would be focused on teaching in the future, Professor Lupin would most likely need something else to do, and the TSAB could provide something for the man that would be mutually beneficial. How Vivio could think of these things so quickly Harry didn't know, but he chalked it up to her living around people who were essentially politicians since she was six.

"Right then," Harry said with a sigh, "Professor Lupin."

"Why don't you like him anymore, Harry?" Vivio asked with a frown.

"What do you mean? Of course I do!" Harry protested, but could tell immediately that Vivio didn't buy it. "It's just...something I need to talk with him about, is all."

Vivio's scrutinizing eyes bore into Harry for a long moment where Harry was afraid she was going to continue questioning him, but she just shrugged. "Well, I just hope you get past it soon. He's your best bet for learning about your parents, you know!"

"Yeah, I know," Harry said with a frown. Honestly, he didn't even know why he was so angry with Professor Lupin; there could be a number of reasons that he didn't come check in on Harry, after all. Still, he found that the anger - irrational as he knew it was at this point - was too strong for him to just get rid of.

"Well then, I say we should do this..." Vivio paused for a moment. "Tomorrow if there aren't any classes? Or Saturday, if there are? Does that sound alright?"

"Sure," Harry said with a shrug. "Why no classes, though?"

"The process can take a lot of energy out of you," Vivio said with a smile. "If you were to do it on a day with classes, you'd end up missing them all from the exhaustion."

"Is it really that bad?"

"For somebody around our age, yes," Vivio nodded. "No so much for grownups."

"Alright then," Harry said with a small gulp. "Are you sure we should be doing this _now_?"

"Of course!" Vivio said, rolling her eyes. "Nothing major can go wrong, or else Fate-mama wouldn't have told us we could do it!"

* * *

To Vivio's mixed delight and annoyance, she was correct in her assumption that they wouldn't have classes the next day, and the two TSAB affiliates found themselves standing at the door of the Defense room with a white owl perched on Harry's shoulder, nipping playfully at her owners ear.

"Well, look what we have here," a pompous voice grated through the hallway, causing Vivio to spin on her heels to look at Draco Malfoy, who was unfortunately being accompanied by Pansy Parkinson. "What, are you two afraid of a little threat? Running to Professor Lupin to hide, are you?"

"Oh, shut up-"

;;Let me handle this,;; Vivio said into Harry's head, silencing him. Now that she was in control, she turned to Malfoy and said, "I thought that you'd be scared of it, since the threat was aimed solely at you."

Vivio was surprised to see that it looked as though Malfoy had no knowledge of this. She had figured that his godfather would have told him, just so that he could be on guard, but apparently the best course of action he could think of was keeping the boy in the dark.

"What are you talking about?" Pansy demanded, glaring at Vivio.

"Wormtail was threatening Draco in order to get his father to work for him," Vivio said simply, turning back to Draco. "I thought Professor Snape would have told you this. He was there when it happened."

"You're lying!" Pansy countered, drawing her wand and pointing it at Vivio. Now, Pansy was a pretty girl - Vivio would say that the girl was pretty than herself, easily - but the look of fury that crossed her features snuffed out any traces of it completely and immediately.

"Pansy, put that away!" Draco shouted, stunning them all to silence. The girl reluctantly followed that order, and turned her look of loathing towards Draco as soon as he turned his back to her. "How do I know this isn't a lie?"

"If it's a lie and you believe it then you'll look silly," Harry said, much to Vivio's horror. "If it's the truth and you ignore it then you'll die. Take your pick."

There was a moment of silence as Draco processed that - and ignored Pansy turning her rage towards Harry - until he sighed and shook his head.

"I'll think about it," the blonde boy said with a sigh. "Come on, Pansy."

"You can't believe them!" Pansy shouted, seeming frantic.

"Whether or not I do doesn't matter," he said with a glare towards the girl. "As much as I hate to admit it, Potter has a point. Now come on."

Pansy didn't seem to like this very much, and stormed off in her own direction. Draco just stared after her for a few seconds before sneering and slinking off back towards the dungeons, leaving a bemused Vivio and Harry behind.

"That was weird," Harry said with an accompanying raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Vivio agreed. "Pansy scares me now."

Harry snorted and turned his attention to the door. "So, we can just go in?"

"It worked last time," Vivio shrugged.

Harry seemed satisfied by that answer, and entered the room without commencing any further conversation, with Vivio following on his heels. It was only halfway to the man's office before he seemed to lose his nerve and sat down into a seat with a sigh.

;;Are you sure it's safe for it to be _him_?;; Harry asked.

The emphasis that Harry put on the last word was not missed by Vivio, who frowned at her best friend. It didn't make any sense to her that he started to seemingly dislike Professor Lupin - who had been his favorite professor - when he learned the man was a friend of his father's, but that's what indeed seemed to have happened. The whole thing made Vivio rather sad, really.

;;It's fine, Harry,;; Vivio said with a frown. ;;I'm going to go get him, now.;;

Vivio was up and making her way to the door to Professor Lupin's office before Harry got a say in the matter, and two swift knocks was all it took to get the shabby professor to the door. Before _he_ had any say in the matter, Vivio grabbed his arm and dragged him across the room to where Harry was.

"Professor," Vivio said with a grin, quite amused at the stunt that she'd just pulled, "me and Harry want to preform a rather complex spell, and have chosen you to supervise us so that we don't end up dead!"

This was said in an incredibly cheerful tone, and since Harry knew better he laughed. Professor Lupin, however, looked terrified at the prospect. However, it only took him only a moment to calm down from that, and when he did he snorted and shook his head.

"Would it be safe to assume that this all is a joke?" the professor asked.

"The dying part is, yes," Vivio grinned. "We're still going to preform a complex spell, though!"

"It wouldn't happen to be a dangerously complex spell, would it?" he asked wearily.

"Not really," Vivio said with a shake of the head. "It'll tire Harry out, but that's about it."

"I see..." the man said thoughtfully. "And you chose _me_ for this task?"

"Yep!" Vivio chirped.

"Is there any reason why?"

"Because reasons," Vivio said with a nod, satisfied with her answer.

"Of course," the professor said with a roll of the eyes, then turned pensive. "I take it you're going to cast this spell even if I don't supervise it?"

"Of course!" Vivio chirped, mixing in a giggle for good measure.

"And even if I somehow managed to stop you from doing it now, you'd just get up and do it later?"

"Pretty much, yeah!"

The professor just shook his head and sank town into one of the seats, letting out a weary sigh. He rubbed his temples and seemed to go into deep thought for a moment before turning to Vivio with amusement in his eyes.

"I believe, Miss Takamachi, that you're trying to give me a heart attack before the year's out," he said with a wry laugh. "First Peter and now this. What do you have planned for next time?"

"Telling you wouldn't work towards my supposed goal very well, now would it," Vivio said with a grin.

"No, I suppose it wouldn't," the professor conceded with a defeated laugh. "Very well, I'll supervise you preforming this spell. I should warn you, though; if it looks like it's getting too dangerous, I _will_ stop it immediately, regardless of whether it was 'supposed to do that' or not."

"Got it!" Vivio chirped.

In truth, Vivio knew that there was no way for Professor Lupin to stop it. Not only was it a form of magic that he didn't know anything about, but it only lasted for around a second once the ritual was started. It actually made Vivio wonder why her Fate-mama wanted them to be supervised, but she chalked it up to being for her godmother's peace of mind.

"Aren't you supposed to try and stop us or something?" Harry asked with a genuinely curious tone.

"Please; I remember what it was like to be a kid," the man said with a good natured shake of the head. "James would always come up with these stupid ideas that not even I could stop him from doing, and I don't expect to have any better luck with it now. In the end I always decided that I may as well go along with it to make sure he was safe, and since it always worked, here I am."

Vivio had no idea who James was, but from Harry's expression he did. That was when it hit her; James was Harry's father. He had to be; he was the only Marauder whose name wasn't given to them the other day. When she thought about it, she was sure that she'd heard the headmaster talking about him by name at Diagon Alley, too.

"So," Professor Lupin said, shifting uncomfortably at the moment of silence, "if you're going to cast this spell then you should probably do it some time today."

"Yeah!" Vivio agreed readily, seeing that Harry wasn't going to say anything about what was bothering him, even though she knew it most likely had something to do with his father.

"Right then," he said with a nod. "Anything I need to do?"

"Can you move the desks so that we have some space?"

It became clear that he could as soon as he muttered something and preformed several wand movements, making the desks rearrange themselves in order to create a large empty space in the part of the room where the three occupants found themselves standing.

"Now what?" the professor asked.

"Absolutely nothing," Vivio said with a nod. "Harry?"

"Right," the boy agreed, and placed the snowy owl on the ground right in front of where he stood. It was a testament to the owl's intelligence that she just sat right there, seemingly realizing that this was something that was supposed to happen. Harry then took several steps back and took a shaky breath. "Is this good?"

"Yep," Vivio nodded, bracing herself for the spell to come.

"Dare I ask what you're doing?" the professor asked, and received his answer in the form of being completely ignored.

;;Chris, you still have the information on the familiar creation process we went over, don't you?;; she asked rhetorically, and smiled when she felt the device nodding it's head in her pocket. ;;Do it.;;

Without warning, two multi-colored Mid-Childan circles appeared, one underneath Harry and the other underneath Hedwig. Vivio read (and would later be told) that it felt like a sort of tube connecting to one's Linker Core, which they would need to force their magic through.

That thought brought Vivio's mind to her own Linker Core, and she quickly realized that Chris had used a decent amount of her magic to start the ritual. She hoped that meant it wouldn't be half as bad on Harry as she thought it would be. Not that she thought it would be too bad on him, but up until that moment she believed it would more than likely end with him passed out immediately.

Vivio quickly entertained the thought of what Professor Lupin's reaction to that would be, and she decided that he would join Harry in passing out, if the expression he held on his face was any indication.

Signifying the end of the process, both of the circles burst out a blanket of light that made it impossible to see anything for a bit over a second. As soon as she could see again, the sight of Harry having trouble staying upright graced her eyes, and she ran to his side to help him.

"Thanks," Harry said, smiling weakly at his friend.

"Of course!" Vivio chirped, and as soon as she was sure Harry was fine, she turned her attention to see Hedwig's human form for the first time.

She was around their age, as Vivio expected, and had long silvery white hair that somehow managed to naturally look like feathers. The only real owl traits she had were her eyes (which Vivio took as a challenge that she couldn't read very well) and a pair of large white wings on her back. She was wearing a pair of sky blue robes with a snowflake pattern on them, which contrasted well with (and this surprised Vivio) the girl's dark skin.

For several seconds, Hedwig did nothing other than stand unsteadily on the spot that her owl form had once occupied, unreadable eyes scanning the three humans - two natural and one artificial - intently. Her first readable expression came when her eyes landed on Professor Lupin, at which time her lips twitched upwards. Vivio didn't blame her, for the man looked nothing short of gobsmacked.

"Hello Hedwig!" Vivio said, beaming at the girl. Harry quickly echoed this greeting.

"H-Hello..." the girl said, seeming rather unsure of herself in this instance. Speaking was a new concept to her, after all, and it didn't help that for the moment it was Harry's vocabulary she was running off of as opposed to her own.

"Oh, don't be shy!" Vivio giggled. "We both know you're not!"

Vivio's friendly nature seemed to help relieve many of the familiar's worries, and she slowly made her way over to the two other children. She was still walking unsteadily, and Vivio knew that this was because she inherited Harry's human instincts, which weren't too compatible with her human form.

When she was rather close to the two, she turned her gaze towards Harry and just stared at him.

"W-what?" Harry asked weakly, and Vivio smiled softly at just how tired he sounded. It was amazing he was still awake, really.

"You're so _tiny_!" Hedwig blurted out, seemingly having found her voice. "I mean, you always seemed so _big_ before!"

"_Thanks_," Harry muttered, the sarcasm lacing his voice not quite enough to hide his small laugh.

Hedwig nodded, playful smile playing at her features, but didn't seem to want to speak anymore. Vivio didn't blame her, because there was no doubt in her mind that this was a lot to take in.

Professor Lupin, however, seemed to have finally found his voice.

"What did you just _do_?" he demanded, staring at Hedwig incredulously.

"We turned Hedwig into a familiar," Vivio said, frowning. This was the part she wasn't looking forward to.

"And what - _exactly_ - does that mean?"

Vivio turned to Harry, who was just about drifting off to sleep. She then turned her helpless gaze to Hedwig, and the owl seemed to know what she was thinking, because she quickly took Harry off of the other girl so that she could focus on Professor Lupin.

"It means that Hedwig gets her own magic and a human form," she said simply, deciding to keep as much as she could out of it. "Think of her as a reverse-animagus."

"What's the catch?" he said bluntly, causing Vivio to frown.

"Nothing," she said, trying to keep the nervousness out of her voice. It didn't work, if the man's expression was anything to go by. "I-I mean, there _can_ be one, but I was never taught how to add it on, so I never taught him how to add it on, and I don't think either of us would do it anyway!"

"What would this be, then?"

"W-Well," Vivio said, lump forming in her throat. "Well...Does it really matter?! I mean, we didn't do it!"

"The sort of spells a culture practices says a lot about them," he said, eyes boring into Vivio and making her all the more uncomfortable.

It also made her realize that the man in front of her did, indeed, know of the cover story.

"W-Well...Nobody uses it anymore!" Vivio all but shouted. "The process was created by the Belkans, and they were _terrible_! If we could figure out how to do it, the thing would be gone in an instant!"

"Belkans?" the professor asked. The knowledge that the only downside of becoming a familiar was created by another group (and not commonly used by the one Vivio was a part of) seemed to mollify him a bit, but now his intellectual curiosity was starting to show. "Who, exactly, are the Belkans?"

The lump in Vivio's throat grew, preventing her from speaking any further. She didn't know why doing this ever seemed like a good idea to her. Her godmother must have expected something like this to happen, Vivio thought, so why did she say they had to have a teacher watch? It didn't make any sense, no matter how much Vivio went over it!

"Rat!"

That one word from Hedwig changed the entire mood of the room. The professor seemed to stop caring about familiars altogether in favor of turning to the spot that the owl was pointing to, where the same rat that Vivio had seen a few days earlier was standing. It was quickly replaced by the man, who was rolling a wand between his fingers.

"Yes; rat," he said with a grin. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Moony."

"Wormtail," the professor said weakly, surprised gaze quickly turning to a glare aimed at the other Marauder. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just watching a show," he said, then turned towards Hedwig with an ugly look. "At least I was. Thanks for that, you overgrown, flying rodent."

Hedwig looked ready to drop Harry and lunge at the man, but Vivio managed to hold her back. Hedwig may not have believed it, but she didn't stand any sort of chance against the man in combat.

Wormtail ignored this, eyes boring directly into Vivio's head. "Of course I also wanted to see the girl who overheard the _private_ conversation between me and Snivellus. Rather impressive spying, I have to say."

"How do you know about that?" Vivio asked, eyes widening.

"You wouldn't believe how quickly rumors spread through this castle," he said with a snicker. "Especially when they're started by a raging first-year girl."

Pansy then, Vivio thought with an annoyed jolt. The Slytherin girl was really starting to get on Vivio's nerves, and accomplishing that was by no means easy.

"I won't let you hurt a student on my watch, Peter," Professor Lupin said darkly, pointing his wand directly at his former friend.

"Didn't plan on it," he said with a shrug. "As I said; just watching a show. Too bad it's over now."

He started a beeline towards the door before any of them could process what he meant. Professor Lupin was the first to recover, locking the door with a wave of his wand, which Wormtail quickly blasted off it's hinges. Professor Lupin then launched a barrage of spells towards the man, who easily avoided them by turning into the rat and exiting the room.

"Don't move!" Professor Lupin shouted, and Vivio didn't know if he was talking to Wormtail or them. She decided it would be best to obey, regardless.

The man ran out to the door and began pointing his wand in several directions, apparently scanning the area around him. It was nearly a minute later, with a defeated sigh, that he returned to the room - repairing the door and locking it with a wave of his wand - and fell into one of the chairs.

"He must have gotten into a mouse hole," Professor Lupin said with another sigh. "Couldn't catch him now if I tried."

His tone was one of a person who was speaking from experience, so Vivio didn't dare contest him on that. In fact, she wasn't very keen on starting another conversation with him at all, because she didn't want to be asked any questions she couldn't answer.

"So...would it be okay if we left now?"

"Wait just a moment," the man said, and he started waving his wand towards Harry while muttering several things under his breath. Vivio didn't know what he was doing, but decided that a friend of his father's that managed to be accepted into a teaching position wouldn't be working to hurt him. Eventually he seemed satisfied, and put his wand away.

"What did you just do?" inquired Vivio.

"Made sure he's still alive," the man said bluntly, and Vivio decided not to be offended by that. He seemed rather impressed by this, and smiled as he said, "Now, feel free to leave if you want. No more reason to stay here."

"Okay then," Vivio said with a nod, and quickly scampered over to pick Harry up, for he had finally fallen asleep. It took only minor prompting to convince Hedwig to take her owl form - which was the only instinct she gained that wasn't Harry's - and the snowy owl took a perch on Vivio's shoulder.

The door, however, remained locked. This quickly became a problem for Hedwig - who, Vivio thought, looked mildly annoyed at having to shape shift _right back_ to her human form - and the snowy owl turned familiar looked particularly devastated by this defeat.

"Actually, before you leave," the professor mused, "what sort of rights do these 'familiars' get in your society?"

"The same a human would have," Vivio replied immediately with a raised eyebrow. "Why wouldn't they? They can do everything a human can!"

The professor seemed particularly touched by this, and with a wave of his wand not only did the door unlock, but it opened as well. Hedwig quickly reverted to an owl on Vivio's shoulder, and seemed to find it necessary to start nipping at the girl's ears irritably.

"Anything else, sir?" Vivio asked warily.

"Not really," the professor said, shaking his head. "Now, I still expect you to tell me just how you managed to cast such a complex spell, but I think it would be best to wait until Harry's awake to do that."

"Thank you, sir!" Vivio said with the first fraction of a grin since this mess started.

"Please, enough with the sir," the man said with a small laugh, before waving her away. "Now, off with you; I need to report what just happened - with Peter, not what you did - to the other teachers."

"Got it, _sir_!" Vivio said, starting a beeline towards the Hufflepuff Basement before the professor got a say in the matter, giggling her head off.

Hedwig was almost launched from Vivio's shoulder, and took flight as she gave Vivio a reproachful look as she asked, ;;Was that necessary?;;

;;Completely,;; Vivio sang.

;;I'm sure,;; the owl muttered before changing gears. ;;Why didn't you let me get him? I knew a few spells from Harry.;;

;;None of them would have worked for you,;; Vivio said with a frown. ;;The familiar creation process wasn't made to create Chaos Cores.;;

;;So I can't use magic?;;

;;Terran Magic, no,;; Vivio said sadly. ;;You could use Mid-Childan or Belkan magics, though!;;

;;Alright then,;; Hedwig said, sounding none too pleased with that idea. Before Vivio got any further say in the matter, the owl flew out of one of the windows and called back to Vivio ;;I'm going to go fly for a while.;;

;;'Kay,;; Vivio called back. ;;Have fun!;;

Vivio couldn't help but to be a bit jealous of the bird. While the girl didn't have the adoration of flying that her mother did, she still did enjoy being able to do it on a daily basis if she felt that it was something that she wanted to. Not being able to do so just felt wrong, but there was no question in her mind that doing so would completely jeopardize the mission.

With a gaze at Harry's sleeping figure in her arms, the girl shook the thought off as she continued her trek towards the Hufflepuff Common Room. She felt that when she reached her destination she was going to follow Harry's lead in taking a rest, because this was one of the most stressful days of the mission so far.

* * *

It became clear to Hedwig that she'd been flying too far when Admiral Graham's house appeared in the distance, but she figured that there was no reason not to go the rest of the way when she was already so close.

A window had been left open in the building which Hedwig had come to call her home, and she quickly flew into it. There was nobody in the living room, but that only encouraged her to fly over to the couch, turn back to her human form, and lie right down on it. The flight - combined with everything else that happened that day - was extremely tiring.

She didn't know how long she'd been laying there - she _may_ have fallen into a light sleep - before she heard a quite gasp of surprise, and turned to see Lotte staring at her.

"Hey Lotte," Hedwig said with a sheepish grin as she sat up straight on the seat.

"Hedwig?" the cat familiar asked with wide eyes. When the bird nodded she quickly ran over to her and hugged her. "Oh, you're _adorable_!"

;;And I can't breathe,;; the owl jabbed irritably into the cat's mind, and the latter quickly let go. "Thank you."

"Yeah, sure," the cat said with a raised eyebrow. "What's got you so annoyed."

Hedwig quickly went over the pros and cons of answering that question, and when she couldn't think of many of the latter she quickly piped up, "I'm useless!"

"No you're not," the cat said strongly. Her head quickly tilted to the side and her brows shot up as she asked, "What makes you say that, birdie?"

"They..." Hedwig started, but stopped to think and took a shaky breath before starting again. "They were almost attacked after the thing was done. If Professor Lupin wasn't there then they very well may have been, because _I_ couldn't have helped them! I couldn't even _open a door_!"

"Wait, why was a professor there?" Lotte asked, suddenly sounding nervous. "The letter said that they weren't to let _anybody_ see them do it, and that included any of the professors."

"What? No it didn't," Hedwig said with a frown. "They both read it several times before they did it, and were still of the opinion that somebody wanted them to be supervised while they did it."

Suddenly the silly, funny Lotte that Hedwig had stayed with for the entire summer that she was owned by Harry was gone. Instead, the woman in front of her was deathly serious, which was an emotion that the owl would have never imagined she would see on the cat's face.

"Somebody's going to be fired for this," she said darkly, and reminded Hedwig that she was still Lotte by adding, "and it _better not_ be me!"

"It better not be Vivio or Harry, either," Hedwig bristled. "They just did what the letter said to do!"

"I know," Lotte said in an annoyed tone that hardly mollified the other, younger familiar. "Somebody on the Claudia must have done something - altered the letter somehow. I can't think of anybody specific who would do that, though."

"I don't think that they'd be obvious about it," Hedwig offered, and shrunk down when Lotte threw her a look that told her the cat had, in fact, figured that out already.

"It's probably the same person who's been stealing device parts," Lotte said, a comment that was accompanied by a roll of the eyes. "As if they weren't causing us enough problems already..."

"Stealing device parts?" Hedwig parroted, suddenly very interested in what was happening on the Claudia.

Lotte quickly smacked herself for making such a mistake and gave Hedwig a reproving look as she demanded, "You're not allowed to tell that to either of the kids, you got that?"

"Why not?" Hedwig asked, and quickly regretted it when Lotte looked at her with a look that made her feel particularly stupid.

"Because, if Vivio's anything like her mother, she'll let that knowledge get in the way of her current mission," was the cat's response, which Hedwig found she could accept. "Anyway, I'm going to need to bring this issue to the attention of the bosses now. Feel free to ask my sister for something to eat if you're hungry, and when I get back I may be able to teach you a thing or two about Mid-Childan magic. Is that okay with you?"

Hedwig didn't know how Lotte knew that was bothering her - later she would admit that it was rather obvious - but was overjoyed at the offer. There were very few people she respected enough to be taught by, and Lotte had become one of them over the summer. The silver haired girl quickly nodded her head, and the cat was quickly consumed by a bright blue light that whisked her away.

Maybe not being able to use Terran magic wouldn't be all bad, Hedwig mused. After all, it would let her do things that Harry couldn't, and he would be able to do other things that she couldn't. That would make them a good team, wouldn't it?

Those thoughts were pushed towards the back of her mind, though, because the prospect of free food was simply too appealing for the girl to ignore. She'd prefer getting her food from the hunt, admittedly, but she was far too tired to do that right after becoming a familiar. She was going to go back to hunting as soon as she could, though, and she would be sure to make a certain rat dread that moment.

* * *

A/N -I changed how the Familiar creation process worked slightly from how it did in canon, and I have a reason for this that happens to have something to do with the crossover. It'll probably come up in the next chapter, actually.

Also, yes; Confident!Wormtail is Troll!Wormtail. He _is_ a Marauder, after all.

pyrovortex - If they were together on the train at least one of them wouldn't have enjoyed themselves. Harry would haver been stuck in a full compartment with Vivio, and Vivio would have been bored in an empty compartment with Harry. The two are, in fact, not attached to the hip. Also, don't worry about Ron; while I like his character, he's not too fun to write, so Neville will be the more important of the two.

jgkitarel - I'll admit that Journalmort isn't in play yet, no. Having two pieces of Riddle roaming around doing their own things is convoluted enough, thank you very much. And Harry _is_ a prodigy, but only in that he's quick on picking up new spells. He did, after all, learn the Patronus Charm in his third year in canon.

Windsong - It's not so much skill as it is creativity. You, after all, need to be able to think of creative ways to use objects for Transfiguration to be used in combat. Also, let us not forget McGonagall's knife spam in the last book, because that was awesome.

Nyamu - Thank you, sir. If you (or anybody else, for that matter) see any more spelling mistakes, feel free to point them out.


	9. The Mouse's Trap

Disclaimer - Sorry about there not being an update last week, but life happened. I'm back on a schedule, though, so that's good, I think. That may not tell you that nothing you recognize belongs to me, but I'm sure this does!

* * *

The Mouse's Trap

As the month of October went on, the two children who had allied themselves with the TSAB couldn't help but to notice the rumor mill that they'd previously made a point to ignore.

Wormtail wasn't lying when he said that rumors spread quickly, and as soon as Vivio returned to the Hufflepuff Basement, she was assaulted by people questioning how she managed to sneak up on the conversation between Professor Snape and Wormtail (although they didn't know his name, for some odd reason). It was only when Alice got tired of this that they stopped, but Vivio was certain that they wouldn't have if they hadn't been subjected to a number of jinxes and hexes.

It soon spread throughout the school, too, that Vivio had brought an unconscious Harry Potter to the Hufflepuff Basement with her. Fortunately, most rumors about how he ended up that way had to do with either Slytherins or Wormtail attacking him, and only rarely was Vivio portrayed a villain.

There was an upside to this all, though. Vivio's extended stay in the Gryffindor Tower during the lockdown and Harry taking refuge in the Hufflepuff Basement after his "attack" seemed to have created a sort of unity between the two houses. It wouldn't be uncommon to see one of the younger Hufflepuffs in the Gryffindor Common Room or vice versa, and the older kids didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

This pleased Vivio, even if it had the unfortunate side effect of bringing forth the Weasley-Fangton Pranking Alliance.

Professor Lupin seemed to realize that the two weren't really in a place to answer his questions, and so let off on them in favor of not chasing the two away from him. He actually seemed quite distressed over the way that Harry was treating him, which was a sentiment that Vivio could say she shared with the professor.

Wormtail seemed to have realized something as well. Now that his presence in the school was common knowledge, he appeared to have decided that he could and would be as annoying towards everybody as possible. It seemed that any time a student ever wandered the hallways alone that the man would pop up and give them a good scare, and it was becoming clear from the stories that the rat was quite enjoying himself.

The teachers (and, indeed, Hedwig) were still having no luck at catching the man, and the only thing keeping the school open was Lucius Malfoy, who was quite influential on the Board of Governors.

It also seemed that Hedwig was having just as fun of a time with her animal form, and whether this was a good thing or not was up to interpretation.

It was two days after becoming a familiar that she started hunting again, and nearly a week later she decided that all of the dead mice and rats she hadn't yet eaten would be dropped on the Gryffindor first-year girls as they slept. And so it was that the entire Gryffindor Common Room was woken the next morning by the screams of the whole lot except for Hermione, who earned Vivio's respect by only seeming to be mildly disgusted by the snowy owl's antics.

To the delight of everybody involved, Hedwig being a familiar made sending in reports much easier. All they had to do was tell the owl their message and she would go and summarize it in her own words to the other end. There was no chance of a fiasco like what happened with Professor Lupin and the fake letter repeating itself. At least, not without great difficulty.

Vivio and Hedwig liked to imagine that the culprit was quite incensed by this, while Harry made it clear that he really hoped they weren't.

All the while Harry was improving with magic, to the point where Vivio was sure he wouldn't even need a wand to cast spells by the middle of November. She was aware that this was really impressive by the Wizarding World's standards, but it was only the beginning when it came to the TSAB's. That wasn't to say that the speed at which he was learning was unimpressive, though.

Vivio, however, was still having problems with casting Terran spells, and the girl was starting to worry that there was more then just one reason for it's continued unreliability for her. It would help explain why she hadn't managed to fix it yet, certainly.

And so, with all of these things happening in the lives of the young Citizen Collaborators, neither of them noticed the holiday of Halloween approaching until it was right on top of them.

* * *

"I still can't believe it's already Halloween," Harry said for about the third time that day, causing Neville to laugh.

"I think I've got that by now, Harry," the other boy said, shaking his head in good nature. "I think Ron would agree, if he was here."

Harry - sheepish from Neville's previous comment - snorted at the reminder of Ron's shenanigans. He, Dean and Seamus had managed to get lost in the castle looking for something or another - they hadn't said what - to the point where neither Neville or Harry were particularly interested in starting a search party to find them. The two boys had settled on just telling Professor Flitwick during Charms and left it at that.

"I'm sure he would," Harry said with a shrug. "That's assuming he remembered what I said after his little escapade, though."

"Oh yes, I'm sure it's _so_ daring," Neville said with a roll of the eyes. "A quest worthy of a Gryffindor!"

While making that last statement, Neville brandished his father's wand and held it up like a sword. The moment the two locked eyes merely a second later, they were overcome with laughter.

Neville's attitude had really improved in the past month, if Harry had any say in the matter. He wasn't nervous of many things anymore, and without this constant worry he could focus on other things, which helped to improve his memory (although it could still be rather shoddy at times).

Their laughter lasted all the way into the Great Hall.

"What's got you two laughing so hard?" a strange sight at the Gryffindor table asked, in the form of Daphne Greengrass. The Ravenclaw house had a habit of staying to themselves, even if they were friends with somebody from another house, so seeing Daphne at the Gryffindor table - during a feast, no less - was surprising.

"Inside joke," Harry said simply.

"Right then," Daphne said with a nod, turning to the larger than normal variety of food and digging in. A few of the Gryffindor students gazed at the girl with inquisitive eyes, but none of them really bothered her.

"Where's Ron?" Vivio piped up, a frown playing at her face.

"Not here," Harry said as he followed Daphne's lead in stuffing all of the food he could onto his plate.

"Well, that doesn't tell us anything!" Susan complained, stabbing Harry lightly with a fork.

"Hey; I told you as much as I know!" Harry mock-complained, deciding that the act of stabbing her back would be the best way to get retribution from the girl. There were downsides to this action, though, being that Susan wanted revenge for his revenge.

"Okay, children; let's stop before we start hurting each other," Daphne said, smirking at the two.

"I'm older than you!" Susan complained, pouting and looking very much like a child too young to be going to Hogwarts. Vivio seemed to have noticed that as well, because she quickly stifled a giggle at the redhead's antics.

"By hardly more than a month," retorted the grinning Daphne. "That hardly counts."

"Susan wins," Vivio said, trying to suppress her giggles as best she could (which really wasn't that well). "A month is a long time, so it counts."

Both Harry and Neville agreed in some shape or form - both aware that they were both the youngest no matter what - and Daphne sent a mock glare towards the two before shrugging in good nature.

"Where's Professor Dumbledore, by the way?" Susan asked with a raised eyebrow towards the staff table. "I've heard he really enjoys these holiday feasts."

Harry and the rest of the group turned their attentions to the Head Table, where all the teachers but the headmaster sat. Harry scanned the room to make sure he wasn't there, and when he was sure the man wasn't he allowed a frown to swallow his face. The headmaster really wasn't the type of person to miss any sort of meal - from Harry's experience, at least - so this was a very odd occurrence indeed.

;;Think Hedwig would know?;; Harry asked, thinking of the snowy owl with a fond smile.

;;Maybe,;; Vivio said with a bit of uncertainty. ;;We may as well ask her.;;

;;I guess,;; Harry agreed before turning his attention to his connection with Hedwig and asking her, ;;Do you know where Professor Dumbledore is?;;

Harry noted - not for the first time - that it was much easier for him to contact his familiar with telepathy than anybody else. Of course, he knew they had a connection from the spell that empowered her, but he didn't know if that really had anything to do with the ease at which they could speak at any time (unless she was off of the school grounds).

;;Of course I do!;; came Hedwig's indignant reply.

;;You wouldn't happen to be able to tell me, could you?;; Harry inquired with a barely concealed grin. Hedwig was simply the best, and she would not respond kindly to implications of the contrary.

;;Of course I can!;; Hedwig chirped yet again, although this time she sounded much more pleased with the question asked. ;;He's gone with Admiral Chrono to a meeting with the Minister of Magic, about whether or not Sirius Black should have a trial.;;

;;Isn't it a bit dangerous to be getting involved with the politics of this world so early?;; inquired Vivio, surprising Harry, for he had forgotten she was still a part of the telepathic conversation.

;;They're just testing the waters, don't worry,;; Hedwig assured them.

;;Well, thanks then,;; Harry said quickly, noticing that the other three were beginning to notice his lack of involvement in the conversation.

;;Any time!;;

Harry thought he could almost attempt to pay attention to another conversation while talking through telepathy, but really didn't want to risk it quite yet. It only took him a few seconds to catch up with the one his friends were taking part in, anyway.

Apparently Susan had gone back to the Hufflepuff table to drag over Hannah, who was a master of her trade. Her trade was, of course, gossip, and she was repeating the various theories flying throughout the school about the headmaster's absence to the entire Gryffindor table. Harry really hoped that nobody actually believed them, because they were some of the most absurd things that he'd ever heard.

"You do know that it's rude to make things up about people, don't you?" Hermione asked, crossing her arms across her chest as she took in the group across from her.

"We aren't making anything up, Hermione," Susan rebutted in a sweet tone that really didn't suit the redhead at all, causing the entire group of friends to laugh. "What?"

"That tone," Daphne said, grinning from ear to ear at her best friend (because Harry knew that much about the two, by this point). "It just doesn't work, Su. Just letting you know."

"Since when am I 'Su?'" the girl asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Since she's been 'Vivi,'" the spectacled girl said as she motioned towards Vivio. If Harry could read the blonde girl well enough to tell, she was okay with that nickname. He made a mental note to use it more often. "Right now."

"You're missing the point," Hermione insisted. "What do you think the Headmaster would think if he heard some of these things?"

"I've talked with him before!" Vivio chirped. "I honestly think he would be quite amused by them, really."

"I got that impression as well," nodded Harry, deciding to come to his best friend's defense. Hermione was stubborn, so Vivio would need all of the help she could get in appeasing the girl.

Fortunately, the bookworm just huffed and went back to eating her food, leaving the group once again to their own devices. The group seemed to pay no mind to this, and instead - possibly reassured by what Vivio and Harry had said - went back to discussing the rumors about the headmaster in full force.

This was, of course, until the entire Great Hall shook.

Panic quickly reigned in the large room, and not even the teachers seemed to be able to calm any of the students down. Harry and Vivio were two of the most calm, and Harry knew that he, at least, was terrified. It was several loud blasts from Professor McGonagall's wand that finally silenced the room.

"Everybody remain seated! All Heads of House; go make sure that it's safe for the students to return to their common rooms! Remus; you go see if you can find the source of the blast! All other staff; remain here and keep the students safe!"

The gray-faced staff members quickly nodded and went to do as they were assigned. Professor Sinistra quickly became the de facto leader of the remaining staff, and did a surprisingly good job of keeping the students in line. This was if Harry had any say in the matter, at least, but he was sure most of the other students would agree.

Then another thought hit Harry like a battering ram.

"Oh crap!" he practically yelled, not bothering to answer the people around him when they asked what was wrong. He knew that he shouldn't have said that out loud, but decided that there would be plenty of time to berate himself for his mistake afterwards.

;;Hedwig, do you think you could go look for Ron, Dean and Seamus?;;

;;Sure,;; the familiar replied, sounding confused. ;;I was going to go check out the place the blast came from, but I can do that, too.;;

;;Just try to stay safe,;; Harry requested of her, and the snowy white owl took this as him giving her permission to go and examine the blast zone. She would have done it anyway - she was on her way there before he sent the message to her, even - but she would have felt a bit guilty in doing so behind his back.

;;That sounds like a plan,;; agreed Hedwig, just as she flew through the large, gaping hole in the side of the castle that she was sure wasn't there before.

It immediately became clear that it was a fiery explosion, for the stone looked like it had gotten on the wrong side of a volcano's temper. Fortunately, there weren't any students lying around the ruins, so Hedwig took that as a plus.

Quickly morphing into her human form, Hedwig tasked her Storage Device, Backwind, to searching for human presence nearby. There were three in the same area that were quickly heading in the direction of the hole, and one much more powerful one fleeing the blast zone in the opposite direction. It didn't take Hedwig half a brain cell to tell that the fleeing signature was the culprit and, after weighing her options, decided to give chase.

In her owl form, it only took her a minute to catch up with Peter Pettigrew, and if it stuck her as odd that he wasn't using his rat form to travel the school, she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Wormtail!" she shouted immediately after returning to her human form. "What good did you think putting a hole in the school would do?"

"Oh, I thought I'd give the kids a bit of fireworks for the occasion," the man jeered. "After all, this is much more than just a holiday in the magical world; it's an anniversary!"

"What are you on about?" Hedwig demanded, glaring at the man as best she could.

"Please; you're Harry's familiar, aren't you?" the man asked rhetorically. "You can't tell me you don't know this?"

"Know what?" Hedwig snarled, getting tired of the man's beating around the bush.

Her anger was only fanned when the man started laughing as if he'd just heard the funniest joke in his lifetime.

"Oh, that's just sad!" the man managed between his laughter. "Kid doesn't even know the day that his parents died! Let me guess, he was down in the Great Hall, celebrating like every other student, blissfully unaware of what today actually meant for him?"

Hedwig's blood boiled, and instead of answering his question, she activated Backwind. The blue and white staff - adorned with a bright yellow star-shaped gem that matched her eyes at the end - seeped with power in the familiar's hands as she pointed it directly at the rat in front of her.

"Well, isn't that a nifty toy?" the man sneered, not a second before launching an array of spells at the familiar.

[[Round Shield.]]

A white Mid-Childan circle appeared in front of the familiar, easily blocking the bolts of energy flying at her. She couldn't help but think that he was mocking her, though, because those spells looked a lot like the first-year spells Harry was working on learning.

"What? Too weak to fight back?" the man taunted, in what Hedwig would only later realize was a blatant and pathetic attempt to get her to show him everything that she could do.

At the time, she was all too happy to oblige.

[[Whisper Wind.]]

Stabbing Backwind in the rat's direction, Hedwig launched several orbs of wind that looked like somebody took a tornado and rolled it up into a ball towards the man.

"Protego!"

With an upward flick of the wand, a nearly transparent blue shield appeared in front of the man. Hedwig was satisfied that he didn't seem to have realized what the spell would do, because as the orbs of wind hit the surroundings they sent wind flying wildly in every direction, in which Wormtail was caught up until he hit the wall. His left arm broke with a sickening crack.

"Argh, stupid bird!" the man roared. "I _will_ finish what I started! Avada Kedavra!"

A few simple wand movements sent a streak of green aiming for Hedwig, and it was only Backwind telling her that it was too dense a spell to block that had her dodging it instead of putting up another Round Shield. It caused the wall it hit to look like it was hit by a fully powered Plasma Arm from Vivio, and Hedwig was really not keen on finding out what it would do to a living being.

"And what - _exactly_ - would that be?" Hedwig demanded as she slashed Backwind in his direction, all the while hoping the man was stupid enough to spill his guts to her. Criminals tend to do that, she'd been told.

[[Razor Gust.]]

A shockwave of wind shot in the direction Hedwig had slashed in, and the man quickly morphed into his rat form in order to avoid it. That was a shame because - if the large gash if left in the wall was any indication - they wouldn't have to worry about the man anymore if it had made contact.

"Leaving poor little Harry Potter without a family," the man said as if it was obvious, just as he launched a few more powerful spells at the familiar, who had to morph into an owl to avoid them all. She was glad that Backwind morphed with the rest of her, because it would be awkward wielding it any other way.

"I though it was Sirius Black who did that!" Hedwig roared as she launched more Whisper Wind rounds at the rat. Unfortunately, he did a much better job of blocking them than he did that last time, and aside from faltering to the side for a second seemed completely unfazed.

"Oh, please; _Padfoot_ betraying the _Potters_? That's a riot!" the man said, roaring with the laughter which was quickly becoming the most jarring that Hedwig had ever heard. "He was like a brother to James; the obvious choice for the Secret Keeper! That's why he was the _worst_!"

Wormtail jabbed his wand at a nearby wall, and Backwind quickly advised Hedwig to put up a Round Shield. Despite doing so, the fiery explosion that followed knocked her backwards, and she was fairly certain that the only reason she was still conscious (or even alive) was that she was wearing her Barrier Jacket (which happened to be the clothes she was created in).

"But who would expect poor, weak Peter Pettigrew, who can't even cast a proper spell to save his life to hold the secret to the Potters' lives," the man sneered. "The same people who would have expected him to be the Death Eater spy: NOBODY!"

[[Wind Rider.]]

Before Peter got the chance to launch off another spell, the wind picked up Hedwig and launched the girl right at him. While she didn't do too much damage to his person, she barely managed to grab his wand and snap it. This seemed to only enrage the man, who grabbed another wand out his pocket and blasted the familiar against a wall.

"That was a good attempt, I'll give you that," the man said, lazily pointing his wand at the girl just as Backwind warned her that another person was heading their way. In her condition, the familiar could only hope it was an ally and stall until they got there.

"Why'd you betray Prongs?" she asked, looking at the man with fearful eyes (for it was hard not to be fearful in her situation). "I mean, he was your friend, wasn't he?"

"Of course he was my friend," the man said with a bitter laugh, "but that concept doesn't really work during war, does it? I wasn't just going to be stuck on the losing side just because my friends wouldn't listen to reason."

"And yet your side lost," Hedwig couldn't help but grin. "That must have been embarrassing."

"Oh, don't even get started on that," the man said with an exasperated sigh. "My side isn't half as 'lost' as you think it is, I can assure you of that!"

"But Voldemort's dead!"

"The Dark Lord is just one guy," the man said, shaking his head with a victorious smile playing at his face. "One guy whose body they _never found_!"

Hedwig gawked at the man, processing what he had said. She knew that the wizarding world was a bit behind the muggle world - and far behind most TSAB allied worlds - but was it possible that they really declared somebody dead without finding his body? That was nearly rule number one in the TSAB; if there's no body found, never make the assumption that somebody's dead.

"Backwards place, isn't it?" the man laughed - most likely at Hedwig's expression. "The Death Eaters aren't half as stupid, though. If I could make a suggestion; leave Dumbledore's lot, because the man's just a fool, at the end of the day."

"I think I can speak for the entire TSAB when I say we'd never work with a group like yours!" Hedwig snarled, and it was then that she realized she said something she shouldn't have.

"The TSAB, huh?" the Marauder grinned. "I was wondering what to call your lot. Thanks for that."

Hedwig stared horrified at the man in front of her - an emotion that only increased as the man pointed his wand at her and a bright green light lit up the tip. As he did this - and Hedwig would swear this until the day she died - the man's eyes flashed with a blood red. But before he got the chance to cast the curse, another spell seemed to hit the man, and he stiffed up as though he was a board.

"The Full Body-Bind; Petrificus Totalus," explained Professor Lupin, keeping his wand trailed on his old friend as he walked into Hedwig's viewpoint from another hallway. "I take it that Harry can cast it?"

"Y-yeah," Hedwig said, relief filling her.

"Doesn't surprise me in the slightest," the man said with a small amount of pride, and with a flick of the wand Wormtail could move his face again. "So, Peter; what was it that you were spewing about You-Know-Who being alive?"

"The truth," the man said, letting out a loud, high pitched laugh that could easily be mistaken as a scream, just as a large amount of black vapor shot out of his head. Out of his eyes, nose, mouth and even his eyes shot the smoke, which quickly formed a humanoid figure in the air above Wormtail. The only signs of a face on this entity were two glowing red orbs staring directly at Hedwig.

"What _is_ that?" Hedwig asked, trying to crawl away from the figure as best she could, but she was too tired to do much.

"I don't know," Professor Lupin said weakly, but he quickly found his strength and cast several spells at the wraith. None of these spells did anything though, and the figure seemed to get tired of this and sped down a hallway leading away from the two.

"Wait!"

"NO!" Professor Lupin roared, throwing his arm out to the side as if Hedwig would find the strength to chase the specter. "I don't know how to deal with whatever that is, and you don't seem to have enough strength left to fight it! What we have to do now is tell the other professors what happened here."

"Won't matter," Wormtail laughed. "You'll never catch him!"

"Shut up, Peter," the professor said in what was close to a deadpan, but lacked the humor of one, and quickly knocked the rat out with a stunner. "Do you think you could walk on your own, Hedwig?"

"Of course!" Hedwig said, not quite believing her own words, but not willing to admit to her own weakness. Still, the silver haired girl managed to rise to her feet.

"Right then," the professor nodded, and with a wave of his wand the unconscious Peter Pettigrew was floating by his side. "Follow me."

The professor started forward, and to Hedwig's credit, she managed to do as she was asked for about twenty feet before she passed out from the exhaustion.

* * *

The next half hour in the Great Hall was undoubtably one of the most stressful for almost every student that inhabited it, but to none more than Harry and Vivio. This was, at least, the Mid-Childan's opinion on the matter, and she wouldn't hear anybody saying anything to the contrary.

The reason for this was simple; Hedwig wasn't responding to any of their messages. The connection between her and Harry said that she was undoubtably alive, but that didn't change the fact that she had to be hurt to ignore them. Even if she was messing with them, she would have responded to them asking her if she was okay, lest they think she was weak.

Their nerves weren't helped by the second explosion that occurred only several minutes after the first, although there was a small solace in that it was a much smaller blast. Still, the two couldn't push away the worries that either her or Harry's dorm mates were caught in one of the blasts, and although Vivio didn't know them half as well as her best friend, she liked to think that she was probably just as worried.

Therefore the two were both relieved and distressed when Professor McGonagall reentered the Great Hall and walked directly over to them.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Takamachi; I need the two of you to come with me," was all she said as she turned and exited the room for the second time. Vivio realized immediately that this had to do with Hedwig, because she would have taken Neville if it was Ron and the other two boys.

Harry shot right up, seeming to realize the same thing.

As they passed through the hallways, Vivio realized that they were heading to the Hospital Wing. She'd never had to be there herself, but she made a point of knowing where it was, just in case. So she wasn't surprised to see the other girl laying on a bed looking worse for wear, but that didn't stop the sight from being distressing.

"What happened to her?" Harry asked, not quite able to pry his eyes off of his injured sister.

"She got into a duel with Peter Pettigrew," Professor McGonagall said sadly. "She put up a good fight, but if Remus hadn't arrived at the time he had, she most likely would have died."

Vivio looked up at the woman and noticed that - for the first time - she wasn't looking at her with an ounce of suspicion. The girl didn't really know what to make of that, although that was likely because she didn't have the time before Harry started to speak.

"She'll be okay though, right?" he asked in a weak tone.

"Yes, of course," the professor confirmed with a nod. "In fact, she's doing much better than I'd have expected if you'd told me that a girl of her age got into a duel with a grown man - one learned in the dark arts, no less."

"Hear that, Hedwig?" Vivio cooed, walking over to the bed and running her hand through the familiar's feather-like hair. "You _are_ the best!"

The owl didn't show any signs of waking up, but her lips twitched upwards, which Vivio took as meaning that - on some subconscious level - she was quite pleased with the praise. Harry made his way over to his familiar as well, but he just stood around awkwardly, seemingly without a clue what to do.

"What happened to Peter?" asked Harry, looking as though the very idea of the man made him sick.

"Professor Lupin caught him, and Professor Flitwick is currently looking for a way to keep him from escaping once he wakes up," the professor said kindly, but Vivio got the impression that there was something being left out of that story.

"Ma'am," Vivio piped up, "was it Peter that caused the explosions?"

"We do believe so," the Transfiguration professor said sadly, "although we have no idea why he would have done it."

"Celebrating."

All three heads turned towards the dark skinned girl, whose facial expression made her look even worse - she looked so defeated. Vivio quickly scooted over and hugged the girl, who yelped from either the pain or from just not expecting to be hugged. Whatever that cause was, it caused Vivio to let go of her immediately.

Harry still seemed as though he had no idea what to do.

"Alright; there will be no more hugging!" Madame Pomfrey - the resident healer of the castle - said sharply as she ran over to check on the girl.

"I'm _fine_," Hedwig insisted, glaring at the woman who started casting spells to check on her condition. "I just hurt a _little bit_!"

"And that's more than you should be," the healer said briskly, running over to a cabinet and looking through several vials that Vivio was sure contained various potions. The heterochromatic girl only kept her attention on that for a second, and quickly realized that she was the only one who took note of it in the first place.

"What was he celebrating?" Professor McGonagall asked, staring at the familiar with eyes that conveyed both kindness and impatience. Vivio thought that the expression looked like a work of art, for she knew she'd never be able to master it.

"He...He..." the owl started, unreadable eyes shifting awkwardly in Harry's direction. "He...admitted to being the Potter's Secret Keeper."

Both Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey gasped, and the prior managed to ask, "Are you certain of that?"

"Absolutely," Hedwig nodded. "He seemed quite proud of his feat, really. I don't see any other reason that he'd laugh..."

Vivio gazed over the familiar with sad eyes. Whatever the laugh was like, it had spooked her, because she visibly shook as she spoke of it. The blonde girl quickly slipped her hand into the familiar's, who smiled at the act of comfort.

"Well," Professor McGonagall said, looking as though she wasn't quite sure what to say about this, "I believe I should go and inform the Headmaster of this development posthaste."

"There will be no need for that, Minerva."

Vivio's head lurched towards the source of the voice, quickly laying eyes on the headmaster standing in the doorframe. He was looking at the familiar sadly, and Vivio was surprised to see a bit of guilt in his eyes. She guessed that he must have felt that if he was in the school at the time, Wormtail wouldn't have tried anything.

"Albus," Minerva breathed out, seeming much more relieved than a mere moment before, "when did you get back?"

"Not but a few minutes ago," the man said, once again sounding jovial despite clearly not being so. "More than enough time for Remus to catch me up with recent events. I must say, I'm impressed at how well you held your own."

This was said to Hedwig, who lit up at the praise.

"Thanks!"

"Your very welcome," the headmaster chortled. "Now Minerva, if you and Poppy could leave for a minute, there's something I wish to speak with these three about."

The deputy headmistress looked as though she was about to argue, but years of knowing the eccentric headmaster must have taught her a thing or two, because she and the healer left without a word.

"What do you want to speak with us about, Headmaster?" Vivio asked as soon as she was sure the two women were no longer close enough to overhear.

"A topic that I wouldn't want to bother you with at such a young age, but Chrono was quite insistent that you were mature enough to handle such things," the man said with a small sigh that said he still wasn't quite keen with the idea. "I'm afraid that Peter Pettigrew may have been possessed by Lord Voldemort."

"I was fighting Voldemort?" Hedwig asked, sounding more excited than fearful at the prospect.

"In a manner of speaking, you very well may have been," Albus agreed. "There's no guarantee, of course, but something was possessing him at the time of your fight."

Possession. The very concept terrified Vivio to the core. The girl's free will had been pried from her once in the past, and that was more of an external process that was quickly solved. The idea of having something in her body controlling her long-term was the stuff of nightmares, in her opinion.

"Does that mean Peter wasn't in control of his actions, then?" Harry asked, inquisitive eyebrow raising to the rest of his hair.

"Yes and no," Albus corrected. "Voldemort would be very capable of influencing Peter's actions while possessing him, but it was still very much Peter doing it. Perhaps in a way that Tom wouldn't be too fond with, but it would be done nonetheless."

"Tom?" inquired Vivio.

"Ah yes; Tom Marvolo Riddle is the true name of Lord Voldemort," the headmaster explained, and he seemed quite pleased that Vivio picked up on that. "But that's a topic for another time. What matters now is that he - or some other incredibly dark being - may now be roaming free in the school."

Both Harry and Hedwig tensed up at that statement, but Vivio didn't. Her mind was too caught up in the fact that there was a creature in the school that could possess people for her to do anything other than just stand there.

"There's no need fear it so long as it doesn't find another host," the headmaster said, and then - as if he was reading Vivio's fears - added, "and the host must be willing."

Vivio's worries began to fade, but they weren't altogether gone. After all, Riddle could easily still be acting in the school, and he'd already knocked Hedwig around plenty to prove his continued existence as a threat. Vivio really wasn't looking forward to any potential confrontations with him.

"So, how do we fight him?" asked Hedwig, sounding all too eager for Round Two.

"That's a matter that I'll have to look into, I'm afraid," admitted the headmaster. "As of now, you should all keep your eyes open, and report any possible sightings of Voldemort to a professor immediately."

"Right!" both Vivio and Harry agreed, and the latter quickly gave Hedwig a pointed look that told her that she better agree as well. Vivio was also fairly certain that a telepathic conversation passed between the two, because Hedwig agreed shortly thereafter with a jerky nod.

"Well, now that we're all in agreement, I believe I should go and let Poppy back into her hospital wing," the headmaster said brightly, ignoring Hedwig's obvious reluctance to follow the orders given. "I have to go catch the other staff members up, and then research the topic we all have on our minds. If you would excuse me."

He exited the room without giving any of the children time to respond to his farewell.

"He doesn't expect us to just sit down and do nothing, does he?" Hedwig muttered darkly, looking between Harry and Vivio as though gauging their reactions. Vivio couldn't be sure of that, though, because she still couldn't read the familiar's eyes properly.

"If he's not, I am," Harry replied, throwing a stern look at his sister. "None of us know how to deal with it, and I...I don't want either of you to die."

Hedwig's expression softened - if Vivio was reading into it correctly, at least - and she quickly rolled onto her front and hid her face in her pillow. Vivio would have found such an act silly were it not for the situation, and it helped to calm her down despite herself.

"Vivio, are you alright?" Harry asked, emerald green eyes staring at her, brimming with concern. "You don't look alright."

"I'm alright," Vivio replied with a nod. "A bit nervous, but that's fine, right?"

"Absolutely," Harry agreed with a nod. "I'm nervous too, but fretting over it won't accomplish anything, and you know it. Besides, we have Hedwig here; nothing to worry about!"

"Yes, I'm _here_," the owl said, sounding extremely annoyed and disheartened. "Here in a bed in the hospital wing, too exhausted to even stand up. You're _so_ safe! Let's face it; if he were to attack again I couldn't do a thing to protect you! He's probably laughing at me right now!"

Both students stared at the familiar, surprised at her outburst. For his part, Harry looked devastated at having made Hedwig feel bad, and he certainly didn't know what to say to make his sister feel any better. Vivio didn't either, for that matter, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

"Yes, you're in the hospital wing," Vivio agreed. "I doubt Riddle is going to risk angering you anymore, unless he wants you to go and take him out."

"I didn't stand a chance," the familiar muttered darkly. "If we fought again, I'd lose just as badly."

"I don't believe that," Harry piped up. "Professor McGonagall said that you put up a good fight, and we can't forget that you've only been using magic for a bit less than a month!"

"This was your first fight, wasn't it?" Vivio added. "You can learn from it! You wouldn't believe the amount of times that I've lost to Einhard, but I've beaten her just as much! That's how lots of things in life work; you lose, and then you win with what you learned! When you get back to the Claudia, ask somebody to spar with you - you'll learn loads from doing that, and Riddle won't stand a chance next time!"

The words visibly pierced the owl familiar's sadness, or at least suppressed it for a time - the grin that overtook her face told Vivio that much. She looked incredibly excited to start getting into the fights Vivio had told her to, and - so long as they were friendly - Vivio could understand that attitude completely.

"Not planning to overexert yourself, I hope," said Madame Pomfrey, who Vivio had heard enter the room not a moment before.

"And what if I am?" Hedwig countered, and quickly shrunk down from the look that the healer threw at her.

"You're far too weak to be thinking about that sort of thing now," said the healer, throwing a stern look at the silver haired girl.

"She's not planning on doing any of it until she's better!" Vivio argued, and regretted it the moment Madame Pomfrey rounded on her.

"She shouldn't be planning on doing anything that would hurt her at all!" the woman countered sternly. "I think it's about time you two left her to get her rest!"

The idea of walking through the hallways alone only to be ambushed by Riddle filled Vivio's head, and she had no choice but to shudder. In many ways, the man reminded her of Jail Scaglietti, and it terrified her.

"Could we stay here for the night?" the heterochromatic girl asked, staring at the healer with pleading eyes. "Please; I promise I won't do anything to trouble Hedwig!"

"Absolutely not - the young lady here needs her rest, and she certainly won't get any as long as you're here!"

"Please, I promise to be on my best behavior!" Vivio pleaded, earning her a few strange looks from the two Potters. "I'll go right to sleep; no talking!"

"The answer's still no, Miss Takamachi," Madame Pomfrey said, although her expression softened when she seemed to realize that Vivio was pleading because she was scared.

"Oh come on, Madame Pomfrey," Harry chimed in. "Just for one night. We won't make a sound, I promise."

Vivio was sure that the healer was going to deny them once again, but it seemed that she was getting tired of them making such a big deal of it, because she agreed with a sigh, but made it clear that one sound would earn them a detention. Because of this, the two were as silent as mice as they each laid down on a bed on each side of the familiar's.

They did as the healer said and stayed quiet, but Harry was quick to remind both girls that telepathy didn't really make a sound. With that in mind, the three spent the next hour going over Hedwig's fight with Wormtail, and Vivio was quick to explain to the owl ways to counter such tactics. It was unanimously agreed among the three of them that the bombardment spell was a cheap shot in such a small corridor, which cheered the owl up considerably.

Soon after that, though, both Potters were fast asleep, leaving Vivio awake to brood on the fact that Riddle may be in the school and capable of possessing people.

It was several hours later that the girl actually managed to fall asleep - although it certainly didn't feel that long to her - and to add salt to the wound, her dreams were plagued with her memories of the Cradle.

Fortunately, Madame Pomfrey decided that Vivio didn't deserve detention when she woke up screaming in the night.

* * *

A/N - And so Riddle sacrifices his bishop in order to reveal the enemy's hand, but as we all know, if a pawn gets to the other side one can bring back another piece that's already been taken out.

I'm considering adding Hedwig to the list of main characters, since she has that connection with Harry, but I'm wondering what you guys' opinion on that is? Since a scene can seamlessly transition between Harry and her I think it would make sense, and it is only a minor spoiler, really.

MMC - I'd say that Riddle knowing about the Familiar creation process is a pretty good guess at this point, and all of the professors know about Hedwig now.

jgkitarel - What hint would that be? The only one I can think of is Belka, and I don't think there are many reading materials on Earth about that particular topic. I will also say that Foreheadmort does indeed exist in a way that nobody - to my knowledge - has yet to even consider. At least, nobody commented such a theory yet.

Nyamu - Thank you, my good sir. (Totally going to keep calling you sir, after that last one.)

DragonBard - The Fidelius Charm: A spell which essentially _erases a place from existence_ unless the one person entrusted with the secret decides to tell you. I don't think wizards are weak at all - they just have to remain secret, so they can't very well make spells that will decimate a city block (although Wormtail pretty much did that anyway). Let's not forget that Nanoha still had an AAA-Rank Core when she was a schoolgirl who knew nothing of magic, and undoubtably wouldn't have been able to do much with it if Yuuno hadn't shown up. She may - by some miracle - have learned she had magic, but any spells she would have managed to cast would have been weak, because she _wouldn't know how to use her magic to it's maximum potential_! That's what the problem with wizards is, not lack of power.

Of course a lot of wizards _are_ weak, but that's because of excessive inbreeding. Half-Bloods like Dumbledore and Riddle and Muggleborns like Lily and Hermione won't really have that problem, but they'll still be limited by what the Purebloods have created. I doubt the Pureblood-run ministry would allow any spells that only Muggleborn and Half-Blood witches and wizards could cast to remain in existence, especially if they're much more powerful than the "normal" spells. Therefore, any significantly powerful spells would have been purged.

I really have to thank you for making this comment, because I've been looking for an excuse to say all this for _ages_.


	10. Trying Trials

Disclaimer: I would blame the fact that school is starting for the reason that this chapter is late, but my schedule has been messed up since long before that. Sorry! Anyway, add in the stuff about me not owning the characters and locations and we're golden here!

* * *

Trying Trials

Despite the events of Halloween, the school proceeded as normal for the first half of November. While Vivio could argue that the school was never normal to begin with, it wasn't any different than it usually was; rumors spread though the school as to why Peter would have blown a hole into the building, classes occurred as they would have beforehand, and everybody kept casting spells in the corridors despite the rule against it.

There was one thing that she knew for sure had changed, though, even if the majority of the people in the school never noticed it; Vivio had given up trying to make Terran magic work for her. She wasn't done with it altogether, but decided that she could wait for the Christmas holidays to see if Shamal could figure out what was the matter with it.

Instead, this time had been spent practicing with Hedwig in the Forbidden Forest. The owl showed no interest in learning how to use Belkan magic - something that disappointed the Mid-Childan, although she wouldn't admit it - but she was incredibly interested in learning how to fight against it. This mollified Vivio, because it gave her time to practice her own Belkan magics.

But their training paled in comparison to Harry's.

The raven haired boy seemed to be motivated by his sister's fight with Wormtail to train even harder than he already had been, despite Vivio's every protest against this mindset. This had lead to him managing to cast a wandless Disarming Charm nearly a week before Vivio had thought he would, and other spells quickly followed.

Try as she may, Vivio had a hard time being happy about this, as her best friend looked far too haggard from all of the training he was doing.

Fortunately his success in wandless magic seemed to appease his increased desire to improve himself for the time being, and he went back to his usual training schedule. This didn't give him much time to recover, but Vivio wasn't going to risk complaining about it unless he started getting worse.

There was one event that managed to stop Harry's training altogether, much to Vivio's delight, and that was the trial of Peter Pettigrew.

As neither child had realized it was coming up until the very same day, they remained at the school throughout it. Harry instead spent the entire day worrying over how it was going - it was the trial of his parents' killer, after all - but he needn't have. Lucius Malfoy was also quite influential on the Wizengamot, and he didn't take the threat against his son too kindly.

Learning that the rat had relieved a life sentence in Azkaban from Professor Lupin didn't quite feel right to either of the students, though, so they let the man know that they both wanted to be at the trial of Sirius Black.

That was why the two found themselves outside of the Defense office not a week afterwards, and Vivio had to question the fairness of the Wizarding World's justice system if they set up the trials this quickly. She already knew there were several problems with it without adding that to the list.

"Professor," called Vivio as she knocked at his door, "we're here!"

"A bit early, too," the professor mused just as he threw the door open, grinning at the two children. "You must be really anxious for this."

"He's my godfather," Harry said shortly, but not unkindly. Perhaps it was because the man saved Hedwig's life, but Harry's anger towards him had really dwindled over the weeks of November. Vivio wasn't quite sure if Professor Lupin was back to being Harry's favorite professor, but it was a good start.

"Point," the Defense professor conceded, "but what about Miss Takamachi over there?"

"Padfoot is Harry's godfather, _and_ he's innocent!" the blonde girl said defensively. "There's no reason I wouldn't want to see him be let out of that..._place_!"

Hedwig had previously gone to find out what sort of place Azkaban was - wanting to figure out where her assailant was going to be sent - and she'd returned to Hogwarts horrified. The place was guarded by creatures whose very presence is capable of draining all positive emotions out of a person, and could even suck their soul out from their mouthes if they felt inclined to do so.

The TSAB was working on a way to shut the prison down, but it was far too risky to attempt such a drastic change so early. Vivio was appeased in the knowledge that her godmother and most of the rest of the crew appeared to be just as incensed by this as she was, and even the two Potters thought that Pettigrew had done nothing deserving of that level of torture.

"Right," the man said, and once again looked pleased with the young girl's answer. Vivio was noticing that look on the man's face quite often, when she thought about it, and she wasn't going to jump to any conclusions about that that meant.

She certainly had a few ideas, though.

;;Hey Vivi,;; Harry's voice rang, and Vivio couldn't help but grin at the nickname that both Daphne and Harry had gotten her stuck with, ;;Professor Lupin was a friend of Peter's, right?;;

;;Yes,;; Vivio said warily, not wanting to accidentally say anything that could ruin the progress that her best friend had been making with stifling his anger towards his father's friend. ;;Why?;;

;;Do you think he knows how the rat became an animagus?;;

Whatever Vivio had been expecting her best friend to say, it most certainly hadn't been that. When she thought about it, though, the question made nothing but sense to her. Wormtail - who was widely known as a mediocre student at best - wouldn't have pulled it off without help, if just so nobody would know what he was capable of.

;;It's worth a shot asking, at least!;; Vivio admitted. ;;Though I think Sirius would know as well, and he _is_ your godfather.;;

;;Yay for decision making,;; Harry drawled in good nature. ;;I think I'll wait until I meet Sirius to make a choice, if that makes sense?;;

;;It does!;; Vivio agreed, and that was the end of that conversation, but not the one that they were having with Professor Lupin about nothing in particular. It made Vivio happy to see her best friend and their professor talking cordially, and Harry looked incredibly pleased that he'd managed to hold two conversations at once, even though he'd been able to do it for nearly a week.

"Well, we may as well get going," the Marauder said nearly two minutes later, as he walked over to the fireplace to grab a handful of powder out of a jar on top. "I take it that the two of you are familiar with the Floo network?"

The dumbfounded looks that etched themselves on the children's faces was all too evident of an answer, and the professor appeared to be honestly surprised by this.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to teach you," the professor laughed, and Vivio thought - if the look on his face was any indication - that it was impressive that the man wasn't asking questions about it. "All you have to do is take a bit of powder out of the jar - about as much as I have - and throw it into the fire. The flames will turn green, and you walk into it while uttering the name of your destination clearly."

"Ministry of Magic, then?" Vivio clarified, and felt a jolt of satisfaction when the man nodded. "Should we go first, so you know whether we do it right or not?"

"That sounds like a plan," the professor nodded. "A tip of advice; keep your eyes closed, and don't breathe the ashes in. It only takes a few seconds to arrive at your destination, so it won't be too hard on you."

"A-alright," Vivio said, suddenly much more uncertain about this particular wizarding method of travel. It was one thing to touch a flame while wearing a Barrier Jacket, but another altogether to touch one while not wearing one. Even the knowledge that Professor Lupin probably wouldn't lie to either of them about such a thing didn't help reassure her all that much.

"I'll go first," Harry offered, and there was little doubt in Vivio's mind that her best friend had noticed her reluctance to use the strange form of travel. That knowledge didn't embarrass her too terribly much, because it was plain to tell that he was just as nervous about it.

"Alright then," said the professor, who held the jar out for Harry to take some of the powder. "Go on ahead."

Harry was quick to toss a handful of the powder into the flames, which took a shade of emerald green that reminded Vivio greatly of Harry's eyes. Said eyes were staring cautiously into the fireplace, and that scene seemed to be frozen for several seconds before the raven haired boy started his way towards the flames.

"Ministry of Magic," he said, and the emerald flames whisked him away.

"T-That was what was supposed to happen," Vivio said faintly, "wasn't it?"

"It was," the professor answered patiently. "I guess it's a bit unnerving, seeing somebody Floo for the first time."

Vivio nodded in agreement to that statement as she took a handful of the powder for herself, and turned her reluctant gaze to the flames. Harry freezing up for a moment suddenly made sense, since Vivio wasn't very keen on the idea of walking into live flames - green or not - without a Barrier Jacket at all. It was a shame that Dimensional Transfer didn't work in the school.

At least, they didn't think it did.

The two children had refrained from actually trying it, because they didn't want to take the risk the Wards that stopped telepathy could also stop them from doing that. Dimensional Transfer was a really complex spell (although, admittedly, an easy one to cast), and Vivio didn't want firsthand knowledge of what happened when it was interrupted.

"So, I go now?" Vivio asked, feeling particularly stupid, but not wanting to make any mistakes with this form of travel.

"That you do," the professor nodded. "Just do the same thing that Harry did. Don't worry; it isn't dangerous in the slightest."

Vivio couldn't help but to doubt that ever so slightly, but threw the powder into the flames anyway. They turned emerald green as they had for Harry, and Vivio made her way into them before she had the chance to change her mind.

"Ministry of Magic."

Even as she followed the man's advice, Vivio thought that Floo travel was by no means comfortable - it felt a lot like what Vivio would have imagine being sucked down a giant drain would feel like; she was stuck spinning helplessly as a loud roaring sound assaulted her ears.

* * *

Harry's first impressions of the Ministry of Magic was that its dark wood floor was, in fact, a floor, and as such falling face first into it wasn't a very fun experience by any stretch of the imagination.

Once he got around to pulling himself off of the surface, though, he saw that the Atrium that he had entered was one of the most amazing buildings that he'd ever seen - other than Hogwarts, of course. The walls were lined with gilded fireplaces, and in the center was a fountain with several statues of magical creatures inside of it. There were many other things that made the place look as stunning as it did, but they weren't nearly as interesting to him.

A loud thud sounded from behind him, and Harry turned to see that Vivio had been shot out of the fireplace as though it was a cannon, just like he imagined he had been.

"You okay, Vivi?" he asked as he helped the girl to her feet.

"As okay as I can be after that," the girl muttered, but was grinning despite it. "Who comes up with these things, anyway?"

"Floo Powder was created back in the thirteenth century by Ignatia Wildsmith," a familiar voice said. "How she would have ever thought to use it in such a way is as much a mystery to me as it is to you."

Harry spun around to look at the headmaster, who was wearing a much more serious attire than he normally did. This didn't mean that the robes he donned looked normal by any stretch of Harry's standards, but it was surprising nonetheless.

What was more surprising, though, was that standing next to him was Chrono Harlaown.

The admiral hadn't changed much since Harry had last seen him - he was a man of average height with dark purple (may as well be black) hair who had a serious atmosphere about him. What _was_ different about him was that he was wearing a formal black robe that Harry didn't think suited the man at all, although it could be argued that this was only because he hadn't seen the man wearing anything other than his uniform before.

"Uncle Chrono!" Vivio practically squealed as she ran up to the man and wrapped him into a hug. Harry had to smile at the scene, for was starting to suspect that the girl was getting a bit homesick. Nothing too terribly bad, but it was still there.

"Hey, kid," Chrono laughed, patting the girl on the top of the head. "You don't even know how hard it was to keep my sister from running right here to see you, do you?"

Vivio's face lit up at that statement, with what was possibly the most radiant expression that had taken hold on it while the girl was in Harry's presence.

"I believe that it would be best if you were to catch up in the courtroom," the headmaster said, smiling at the scene in front of him. "The trial won't be starting in too long, and I think it would be best if we were to be there when it does."

"Agreed," Chrono said with a nod, and then turned to the third figure to have exited the fireplace. "You must be Remus Lupin, then?"

"Yes," the Defense professor said, staring at the man with an inquisitively raised eyebrow, "and you would be..."

"Chrono Harlaown," the admiral said, holding his hand out for the other man to shake. "I'm the one in charge of the Bureau in this area."

Harry wasn't sure if that would mean anything to Professor Lupin, but by the look of recognition that lit up his face it did indeed. Perhaps it was because he knew that Chrono and Vivio were acquainted that he was able to figure out that the Bureau was another name for the TSAB (or the secret society that they were a part of, as Remus would have known them), or because somebody had previously told him (although Harry couldn't think of anybody who would), but there was no doubt in Harry's mind that he knew.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Harlaown," Remus said, shaking the other man's hand.

"Please; just Chrono will do," the man laughed. "I'm only really a fan of formality when it's absolutely necessary."

"Right then," the professor nodded. "Remus will do fine."

"Well, now that we're all acquainted," said the headmaster kindly, "we probably shouldn't keep Mr. Black waiting longer than necessary. If you would all follow me, I'll take you right to the courtroom where the trial is to be held."

The four others agreed to that, and the headmaster lead them on a trek through the building. Their first stop was to an elevator, which seemed to feel the need to narrate on what every single floor was. This wouldn't be too bad if the voice that it spoke in didn't sound so bored with her life. As it was, though, Harry really thought it could do without it.

Trials were obviously considered to be inconvenient in the Wizarding World, because the elevator didn't go all the way to the courtroom. Instead, they had to transition to a staircase that took them all the way to a corridor that reminded Harry heavily of the Slytherin Dungeons, or at least the outer area of it that he'd managed to see.

Whatever this meant for the wizard's justice system, it couldn't be a good thing.

"Now then, you will need to go into this door to get into the viewing area," the headmaster said with a pleasant smile. "I daresay there won't be much of a show, but I believe that it'll be a satisfying bit of closure."

The four nodded, and entered the door to make their way up a small staircase, all the way to a row of benches that Harry was convinced they had managed to hide behind one of the dark stone walls of the chamber. It wouldn't really surprise him, because the room looked like they'd really tried to make it look as intimidating as they could. Harry had to frown at that.

"Hey, Uncle Chrono," Vivio piped up after they took a seat. "I know how much Fate-Mama misses me, but how much does Nanoha-Mama miss me?"

"Probably more than your godmother," the man laughed. "She decided, though, that she lost the right to complain about missing you when she put her own mother through the very same thing when she was your age."

Vivio grinned at the thought of her mother's shenanigans when she was younger, and before any conversation could take place, the sound of an opening door resounded throughout the chamber, and everybody turned to get a look at the defendant.

Vivio gasped, and Harry wasn't too far behind.

The man who entered as the defendant was skinnier than could be considered healthy, and the robes he wore were in absolutely no condition to be worn for everyday use. The worst thing about him, though, was his face - it was sunken in as though it was a mask, with only his eyes seeming to be alive. Even his hair looked dead, and as though it hadn't been either cut or combed for years.

"Now that the defendant has arrived, I'd say it's time to begin this trial," the headmaster said brightly. "Now, Sirius Black, you are here on the charges of giving up the location of James and Lily Potter to Lord Voldemort, and blasting apart a muggle street, killing twelve muggles in the process. Furthermore, you have been imprisoned for the murder of Peter Pettigrew, although that charge has been dropped in light of recent events."

The haggard man's eyes shot up to look directly at the headmaster, and Harry could see that they were shining with hope.

"Recent events have also made it plain that none of the accused crimes were committed by Sirius Black," the headmaster continued, something akin to mischief shining in his eyes. "As such, I believe that there is little reason to drag this trial out with a defense that would merely be a repeat of things that we've heard from Mr. Pettigrew not a week ago."

"We can't rule out the possibility that they were working together, Dumbledore," said a man who must have been Lucius Malfoy, due to the striking resemblance he bore to his son. "As such, we can't just grant Black his freedom because of Pettigrew's testimony."

"You cannot forget, Lucius, that Petter Pettigrew's testimony was under Veritaserum, during which he admitted specifically against having been working with Black," the headmaster said pleasantly. "Of course it's possible that he managed to throw off the truth serum, but that isn't something that I believe he has the ability to do. We could always hold a second trial for him should you think otherwise, of course."

Harry was pleased to see that Lucius Malfoy became visibly reluctant to continue his argument. Whether it was because he didn't want to risk Pettigrew getting out or because he didn't want anything about himself to come out during the second interrogation Harry didn't know, but the end result was the same.

"If that's what you believe, then I will defer to your judgement on the matter," Lucius said in an all too oily voice for Harry's liking. "I believe we were all present for Pettigrew's trial, so it wouldn't do to waste the other esteemed Wizengamot members' times by dragging this out."

"As you say," Dumbledore said, pretending as though he hadn't said the very same thing not even a minute prior. "Now, I will give you all a moment to deliberate over the issue at hand."

As the members of the Wizengamot started their deliberations, Harry gazed around the chamber with a disbelieving stare. He'd never been to a trial before, but he was sure that this wasn't how they should have been run. When he turned to Vivio, the girl quickly returned the gaze.

;;This isn't how trials are supposed to work,;; Harry muttered to both Vivio and Chrono, frowning around the chamber, ;;is it?;;

;;Not to my knowledge,;; Vivio said sadly. ;;I was really hoping for better from them, too.;;

;;Pettigrew's trial was much more thorough,;; Chrono said, ;;although they still made mistakes. For instance, Black should have been set free the moment Pettigrew admitted to framing him, or the second trial should have been held immediately. Doing it this way is just a complete waste of time for everybody, as we're seeing now.;;

;;Yeah, and Sirius should have been out of Azkaban as quickly as possible,;; a fourth voice chimed, and Harry smiled at the sudden presence of his sister in the conversation. ;;Seriously, that place is terrible!;;

;;No arguments here,;; Chrono agreed. ;;Whoever's idea it was to use the Dementors to guard prisoners is going to find themselves in one of our own prison cells, I can tell you that much.;;

;;They better be,;; Hedwig growled, just as Vivio piped up, ;;Good!;;

;;It really doesn't make any sense at all,;; Harry mused. ;;Unless the Wizarding World has any other prisons?;;

;;They do,;; Chrono confirmed. ;;Just none that the wizarding community of Britain uses.;;

;;That _doesn't_ make any sense,;; Vivio agreed, seeming to be on the same page that Harry was. ;;What about minor prisoners? Do they have to put up with the Dementors also?;;

;;Unfortunately,;; Chrono sighed, ;;it seems to be that way.;;

A particularly dark look was passed between the two first-years, and Harry was sure that Hedwig would have been joining in if she was there. Fortunately, before either had time to brood on the matter, Professor Dumbledore seemed to decide that the Wizengamot had been deliberating for long enough.

"Now then," the man said pleasantly, "who believes that Sirius Black should be cleared of all charges?"

The sheer amount of hands that shot up into the air staggered Harry. He expected his godfather to be declared innocent - there was little worry in his mind that the man wouldn't be, after Pettigrew's trial - but he didn't expect _nearly every member_ of the Wizengamot to vote for it.

"Well then," the headmaster said, and seemed quite amused that he had to ask for, "all those who believe he should be convicted?"

Only about five hands rose, and without a doubt the most confident was from a man who looked a lot like Daphne - the girl's father, if Harry were to guess. The man was sneering directly at Lucius Malfoy, and many of the people surrounding the latter man - along with the others with their hands raised - were staring at Lord Greengrass appraisingly.

Although Harry didn't have much experience with politics, he could identify a power play when he saw one.

"Very well; the defendant, Sirius Black, is cleared of all charges," Professor Dumbledore said, and he didn't even try to hide how pleased he was with that. "Now, I believe there are a few other matters for the Wizengamot to address, so if an Auror could lead the defendant out..."

No more had to be said, and a tall, broad-shouldered Auror walked up to Harry's godfather and lead him out of the room. Harry couldn't help but to notice that his godfather didn't seem to quite believe what he'd just heard. The Auror who was leading him out of the courtroom seemed quite pleased with the end result of the trial as well.

"I think you should probably go and see him," Professor Lupin said with a small smile. "The first thing he'll ask about will probably be you, at any rate - he absolutely adored you back when you were a baby."

Harry felt a twinge of embarrassment pass through him on principle, but mostly he felt the same feeling he had on the day he woke up on the Claudia to realize that the events of the previous day actually happened; he was delighted that there was somebody who cared about him that much. This feeling was stronger, though, because - if Professor Lupin was right - Sirius had always cared about him.

;;Harry, get going!;; Vivio said, prodding at the boy's side. ;;Follow Professor Lupin!;;

Harry turned quickly to see the Marauder waiting for him at the exit of the room, and practically sprinted to the man's side, after which they went on their way.

"Professor Lupin," Harry piped up, deciding to ask a question that he should have asked a while ago, only half a minute into their trek to meet Sirius Black, "what sort of man is my godfather, anyway?"

"After being in Azkaban for so long?" the professor asked, and sighed the moment that Harry nodded. "I don't have the slightest clue, really."

For the first time, Harry felt a shot of true resentment towards the world which his parents had called their home. How could they have risked sending an innocent man to what could only be described as torture without being sure whether of not he'd done what was accused of him?

Was Sirius the only one?

"Harry?" the professor asked, looking at him with concerned eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the raven haired boy lied easily. "I'm just...I don't know if I can do this."

That was the truth. His godfather - the closest one he had left to true family - was quite possibly insane, and that was a sight that Harry really couldn't bear to see. It was also quite possible that seeing Harry so much older could only make Sirius' condition worse, because it would clue him into just how much of his life was wasted away inside of the prison.

Remus - who seemed to have not thought of those things - looked surprised at Harry's words.

"Are you sure?" the Marauder asked. "I mean, I'm sure he'd love to see you again..."

"I'm sure he would," interrupted Harry, "but it would probably be best if he knew just how much time has passed since he was put in there. I _am_ a few years older than I was back then, after all."

Understanding filled Professor Lupin's face, and he seemed to quickly pick up on the issue that Harry had earlier. Despite seeing the drawbacks of bringing Harry right to Sirius, though, the other Marauder still seemed reluctant to give up that line of thinking.

"He's going to ask about you right away, you know," he pointed out. "Since I don't know half as much about you as I'd like to, there are bound to be questions that I won't have an answer to."

Remus seemed to be honestly saddened that he didn't know Harry all too well, the boy in question mused, but he decided that he could think about what to do with that later. What to do about the matter at hand was his concern, and the most simple solution he could come up with was one that he didn't like very much.

"Vivi could go with you, if she wants to," he offered, deciding that she should have the last say in the matter, since it involves her anyway. "She's my best friend, after all. If there's anybody who could tell him a lot about me, it would be her."

Truthfully, Harry wanted Vivio to see his godfather in such a potentially bad state about as much as he wanted to go and see it for himself, but there was little doubt in his mind that seeing her would do much less damage to the man than seeing him would, and - as he had previously thought- it was her decision to make.

"Alright then," nodded Remus, and immediately the two found themselves on a trek back towards the observation room. Deciding that he may as well save some time by explaining his motives beforehand, Harry started up a telepathic conversation with Vivio while on the move.

;;Hey, Vivi; do you think you could go with Remus to get my godfather?;;

* * *

Vivio blinked - that was the last thing she'd expected the conversation to be about when she felt it coming.

Harry was quick to explain his reasoning for that decision, though, and Vivio had to agree with it, and was more than happy to help him. The last thing that Harry needed after all he'd been through was memories of his godfather in such a horrible state, so Vivio had told him that she'd be able to stomach the sight should it present itself, even though she wasn't quite sure she could.

It didn't even feel like a minute after that in which her and the Defense Professor found themselves standing outside of the room which the Auror - Kingsley Shacklebolt - had taken the ex-convict to.

"Are you ready?" asked the professor, who seemed to be rather unnerved by the point that Harry had brought up earlier, especially since Chrono had agreed with it.

"Of course!" Vivio said, trying her best to sound cheerful and reassuring. "He'll be fine, just watch!"

"I hope you're right," the professor said, and rapped on the door without pause.

There was a long moment in which Vivio was afraid the man wasn't even going to answer, before the door swung open to reveal the same disheveled figure that Vivio had seen at the trial. Up close he didn't look quite as bad as he did from afar, but by no means did he look healthy.

"Moony?" the man asked, just staring between his friend and Vivio. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," Professor Lupin said, smiling slightly. "It's been a while."

"It must have been," Sirius said, and Vivio was relieved to see a grin playing at the man's lips. "I can't see any other reason why you'd look so bad."

Professor Lupin apparently hadn't been expecting his friend to be joking so soon, because he stood there doing nothing for a moment before roaring with laughter that was more relieved than humored.

"It's good to see that you're okay," Moony said seriously. "I was expecting ten years of being in Azkaban to be much worse on you, if I'm to be honest."

"It's funny, really," Padfoot mused with a shrug, "the Dementors don't effect Animagi as much as they do a normal witch or wizard."

"You're an Animagus?" Vivio asked with wide eyes, and immediately threw her hands over her mouth. She shouldn't have said anything - it was the first time they'd seen each other in years, and Vivio had no right to take part in it.

Neither of them seemed to care in the slightest, though.

"Yep; a dog," the man said proudly. "It really wasn't too hard, once we found the best way to go about it."

"Which is...?" Vivio asked with wide eyes, but the only response she was granted was a laugh.

"Sorry kid, I can't just go around telling that to everybody," he said with a mischievous grin. "What type of secret would that be?"

"One that I would tell to Harry?" she offered, and couldn't decide whether she regretted it or not when the man's entire demeanor changed.

"You're Harry's friend?" he asked, more to himself than to either of the others. "Of course - Kingsley told me - top of his year - why wouldn't he...? Why are you here?"

That last question was addressed to Vivio, who was pleased to see that whatever had caused him to become so out of it was gone from him altogether, for the time being. Instead, he was staring at her with a raised eyebrow, and Vivio had to admit that the question was one that she had been expecting.

"I...I came here with Harry," Vivio said, and continued on without looking for the man's response. "He wanted somebody to be here with him for support."

"He trust you that much?" the man asked, and when Vivio nodded he started rapid-firing off questions. Does he play Quidditch? What's his favorite team? Who raised him and how? Does he play any pranks, or is he more like his mother? None of these questions received an answer, because there weren't any openings for Vivio to speak.

"Padfoot," Professor Moony chastised, hitting him lightly on the arm as a sort of warning, "you're overwhelming her."

"I'm not overwhelmed," Vivio said, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. "It would just be nice if I had a chance to _answer the questions_, though."

"That's called being overwhelmed, kid," Sirius laughed, before returning to being serious and asking the one question that Vivio had honestly been expecting earlier. "Can I meet him?"

"Maybe," Vivio said, turning to thought on the matter. "Professor Lupin, could you please go and tell Harry that it would probably be fine to come here?"

"Yes, Moony; be our messenger!" Padfoot mock-demanded, taking what he clearly hoped would be a regal pose as he did so.

"Alright, alright," Professor Lupin returned in a mock-exasperated voice. "Just be sure to be good while I'm gone, children."

"Yes, sir!" Vivio chirped, saluting her professor. Padfoot quickly mimicked this action, and Moony left laughing.

"So," Sirius said as soon as Remus was out of earshot, "'Professor Lupin,' huh?"

"Yep!" Vivio replied with a grin. "He's our Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor!"

"What?" Sirius asked, his look changing to one that made Vivio suspicious that she may have grown a second head. "Why would he take that position; he knows nothing good ever happens to the Defense professors!"

"Well, it _is_ Harry's first year," Vivio said - that was the only reason she could think of, if taking the job was as dangerous as she had been told - and as far as Sirius was concerned, that was the end of that conversation. Instead they spent the time waiting talking about Vivio's time at Hogwarts, and Padfoot became much more interested in the girl once he learned that she was Harry's _best_ friend.

Vivio had yet to get to the part where it had been her that discovered Wormtail in the school, though, before the door to the room opened and Professor Lupin and a reluctant Harry entered the room, followed by Chrono, who stood back in the doorway.

"Pup," Sirius breathed out, staring at the boy as to take everything about his godson in. "It-It's been a while, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess?" Harry said uncertainly, and looked to Vivio as though she'd be able to tell him what to say. When the girl shrugged, he looked rather disheartened.

"So," Padfoot started, seeming to be just as uncertain about this as his godson was, "I hear that you're the top of your year?"

"I'm tied with Hermione, really," Harry replied, and that succeeded at stalling the conversation completely. It was clear that Padfoot didn't quite care to learn who Hermione was yet, but suddenly didn't seem so keen on asking any of the questions that he had earlier. Harry, however, had never known what to say, and that had yet to change.

It felt to Vivio like a full minute into this silence before Harry turned towards Chrono with a helpless look, and the admiral walked forward, holding his hand out for Sirius to shake.

"It's good to meet you, Mr. Black."

That shocked Padfoot out of whatever had rendered him silent, and he reluctantly shook Chrono's hand.

"Please, just call me Sirius," the man said, and Vivio detected a bit of distaste at having been called Mr. Black. "I guess it's nice to meet you too, uh..."

"Chrono Harlaown," the man said with a slight nod.

"Right," Sirius mused with a raised eyebrow. "I don't remember hearing your name before, actually."

"You probably haven't," Chrono said with a small laugh. "I've actually come here to offer you a place to stay, if you don't have anywhere to go right now. You see; my sister's recently taken your godson in, so she's more than happy to provide for you a place to stay for now, should you choose."

Sirius seemed to be taken aback by this, and quickly turned to Professor Lupin for support. The two seemed to go into silent deliberation for a moment - a skill most likely obtained during their time as Marauders - before Padfoot turned back to Chrono with a shrug.

"Sounds like a plan," the man said. "I mean, the only house that I have probably won't exactly be habitable after all this time, will it?"

"I don't imagine it would be," Chrono agreed. "If you'd come with me, we could work the whole thing out quickly enough."

It was then that Vivio realized what was happening, and the girl's eyes shot open.

;;You're bringing him into the TSAB,;; she said to the man that may as well be her uncle, making sure that it didn't sound like a question.

;;I am,;; he agreed. ;;It makes sense after all; his godson is already a member, so he has a right to know.;;

;;There's more to it than that, though,;; Vivio argued, for she knew too much about politics to think that the higher-ups would be okay with them taking that sort of a risk without reason.

;;Of course,;; he admitted, just as he and Sirius seemed to finish speaking, and both men departed from the room. ;;He's the heir to the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, which is one of the most influential and powerful families in the Wizarding World. Furthermore, there is still a huge stigma in the Wizarding World against him despite Pettigrew's testimony, so he's bound to gravitate towards the society that treats him normally.;;

;;This is, of course, all for the higher-ups,;; Vivio asked teasingly, knowing the man well enough than to think that he himself would use a person in such a way, ;;right?;;

;;But of course,;; the man replied. ;;Now - while it's on my mind - your godmother implores you to be on your best behavior while at Hogwarts, and not to get into any fights with unknown beings which could potentially possess you. Honestly, how you could find yourself in such a situation while _in a school_, I have no idea...;;

;;I blame the Takamachi genes,;; Vivio countered, trying hard not to let her fear at the reminder of the wraith show through the connection. ;;Any mission we take part in instantly becomes more dangerous than it needs to be. You know that.;;

;;I do indeed,;; the man laughed through the connection, ;;ignoring the obvious flaw with that theory.;;

;;Nothing's perfect?;; Vivio offered with a small giggle. ;;Anything else I should know?;;

;;Not really,;; the man said, but Vivio could see through his tone - he was hiding something. ;;We'll be seeing you in less than a month and a half, though.;;

;;Yeah!;; Vivio agreed happily; her suspicion about Chrono's tone of voice pushed to the back of her mind for a moment. ;;Tell everybody I miss them!;;

;;That I can do,;; Chrono promised, and then the conversation was cut off.

It wasn't until the group of three had returned to Hogwarts that Vivio remembered her suspicions about her uncle keeping information from her, and she was thoroughly embarrassed that she had let herself get distracted from the matter so easily.

When she told Harry about it, the two decided that their best bet would be going to Hedwig to see what she knew. This proved to be a waste of all their time, because while the familiar knew something about it - she was convinced there was more to it than she knew, even - she was under strict orders not to tell them of it, so all that they learned was that there was, in fact, something wrong.

This - combined with all that's happened in the school - didn't inspire the group much confidence for the mission's future.

* * *

A/N - So, guys, I was trying to make Sirius seemed mildly unstable, but not really insane - I know he acted a bit insane near the end of Year 3, but that was mostly caused by his drive for revenge instead of his stay in Azkaban, I feel. If there's one thing I know for sure, though, it's that I'm not a good judge of my own work, so how did I do at it?

Also, I have determined with my shoddy mental math that the Marauders were fifth-years during the events of A's, but I really can't do maths, so...

Nyamu - She's not really a queen, no. She is a _clone_ of a queen, but the empire that Olivie ruled no longer exists, and any remnants aren't exactly fond of her legacy of - you know - letting the TSAB win the war. So, really, she's just a regular girl - if a bit more powerful than the rest.

MMC - Vapormort certainly can't do anything with Belkan and Mid-Childan magics - I really have no idea what OCP means - but it's good to know what an enemy can do before engaging them in combat. Being blindsided is normally a bad thing.

Silently Watches - You were right the second time; she's just suspicious of Vivio, and the girl couldn't think of any other reason for McGonagall to look at her as such unless she didn't like her.

theDragonBard - I get what you're saying here, but I really can't see the notoriously lazy Terran Wizards being more skilled with magic than a Mid-Childan Mage or Belkan Knight, nor can I see them knowing how to use magic better than a society which has it down to a science. I admit that the only reason I could think of for the Wizards to stand of equal footing with Mages and Knights is to have them using a form of magic which the TSAB can't utilize, but there are a number of reasons that I chose to go that route other than that one.

Sacchin - Devices record from the moment a fight begins, but it wouldn't have helped with Peter's trial. They're trying to remain a bit of a secret, after all, and your average Wizard can't exactly summon a magical floating screen that can play recordings.


	11. Family Feuds

Disclaimer: Life, guys; it makes you busy. I still don't own the characters, if I still have to say that.

* * *

Family Feuds

If there was one thing that could be said about the month of December, it would be that it was the month where Vivio finally learned how quickly life could zoom past her. Without the constant threat of Wormtail slinking around the school, no trials that were important to her being held by the Wizengamot, and the wraith seeming to have abandoned the school altogether, there was nothing to stop the entire month from going by like a blur to the Mid-Childan girl.

She found that she didn't mind this fact in the slightest.

If there was another thing she was sure of about this month, though, it was that neither Harry or Hedwig Potter were sharing in the same experience as she was - they were both busy catching up with Sirius Black.

Both godfather and godson were able to commune much better as soon as embarrassing themselves in front of the other was no longer a factor that either had to worry about, and there was truly no better middleman for the conversation than Hedwig, who Sirius seemed to take in as part of the family nearly as quickly as Harry had.

The dog animagus quickly became a sort of hero to the owl familiar as well, and Vivio had no doubt that this was at least partly because the man provided the first chance for Hedwig to really begin her practice for combating a wizard, and also in part to his affinity towards pranks which the familiar shared.

Such retrospection seemed to just not do for the day, though, because Vivio was dragged out of it with a scream as Susan landed directly on the heterochromatic girl's almost sleeping figure, after a particularly high jump. This had prompted retribution in the form of a pillow being thrown at the redhead's face, sparking a free-for-all pillow fight in the Hufflepuff girls' dorm.

It was Alice who finally entered the room to remind the four that they needed to prepare for departing on the Hogwarts Express later that day, no matter how worthy a cause the fight had started over.

Vivio - being one of the most prepared of the group - was the only one who was saved the panicked packing of whatever they wanted to bring back home that followed, and instead decided to go and meet up with the other two TSAB members. The three managed to have a quick snowball fight, during which both Harry and Vivio were reminded not to get into an altercation with a _snowy white_ owl at any time during winter, just before the two had to lug their trunks to the scarlet train.

"You know, I should probably be able to make things that size levitate by now," complained Harry, prompting a mixed giggle-groan from his blonde haired friend.

"Instead, you spent all your time practicing combat magic," she countered with what she hoped to be a mollifying smile. "It shouldn't be too hard to learn to levitate things, though, so don't worry about it!"

"It's my arms that are worried about it, not me," he argued, making sure to rub his arms as he did so. "Seriously, you don't even know how bad that was for me."

Vivio couldn't think of a good way to argue against that, for being able to carry things with relative ease was a fortunate side effect of being a Belkan Knight.

The two spent the following half-an-hour chasing people whom they didn't know out of their compartment, and hailing their friends up to them. The last of these friends was - surprisingly - the normally extremely punctual Daphne Greengrass, and Vivio felt her heart clenched at the sight of her Ravenclaw friend.

The girl looked so defeated.

"Daph," Vivio said cautiously, "are you okay?"

"Of course," said the spectacled girl, who donned a smile that she clearly hoped was convincing.

"Oh, come off it," said Ron with a huff. "Even _I_ can tell that there's something wrong, and that's saying something!"

Most likely despite herself, a small giggle escaped the mouth of the Ravenclaw. It was a hard sound to hear, but Vivio took it as a good sign. It was gone all too quickly, though, and was instead replaced with a look brimming with sadness and even a small hint of regret.

"Come on, Daph; we're your friends!" Susan piped up. "We're all happy to help you with whatever you need!"

Neville shot a reassuring smiled towards the Ravenclaw, while Harry nodded in her direction. Against all odds, these actions managed to elicit a smile from the girl, at which point Vivio allowed a shot of hope to flow through her .

"Tori sent me a letter this morning," she said, and from the tone of voice in use, Vivio suddenly found herself worried for the younger Greengrass sibling. "My parents are planning to publicly disown me at King's Cross; in front of a number of their old school friends that were in Slytherin, in fact. They've even went over what they're planning to do - several times, by Tori's account - and..."

"Tori's planning to sabotage it," finished Susan in disbelief, the moment that it became clear that Daphne wasn't going to. "She knows what that's going to do to her, doesn't she?"

"I don't think she does," Daphne said sadly. "She seems to believe that our parents actually _care_ about us, and that if both of us are in agreement that they'll change their minds on the matter. I would have thought that them disowning me would have opened her eyes..."

"Is there anything we can do?" Neville asked, and his eyes darted to the ground the very moment that Daphne shook her head.

"Tori's a stubborn girl," she explained with a sigh. "Nothing will stop her from trying to get our parents and I to make up, no matter how good of an argument to the contrary you make. An argument is the only way you can hope to stop her from doing something too, because we can't use magic outside of Hogwarts, and Tori's actually terrifyingly strong when she wants to be."

"I'm pretty strong!" Vivio chirped. "I could try to stop her!"

"Thanks for the offer, but no," Daphne said with a grim shake of the head. "You were one of the people who convinced me to be sorted into Ravenclaw, so giving my parents another reason to dislike you would be a very bad idea. You would, after all, be interrupting the show they plan to put on, and I can do that on my own."

Vivio was about to protest that such a thing did not pose much of a problem to her, but she caught her emerald-eyed friend out of the corner of her own eye, and he shot her a look that stated clearly that she was not to pursue the matter any further.

;;Why not?;; she demanded through telepathy, making sure that there was no mistaking her displeasure. ;;Tori could get in a lot of trouble for this!;;

;;Daphne's father used my godfather's trial as a tool to get himself more power in the Wizengamot,;; the boy said by way of explanation. ;;If we have any chance of winning over Wizarding Britain, angering a man who could have a lot of influence in future would be the perfect way to throw it away.;;

;;What about Daphne and Astoria?;; the girl countered, although she could not argue that his words were without merit. ;;You know Fate-Mama won't just leave them homeless because it would be good for the mission - she took you in, after all!;;

Harry cringed, and Vivio hoped that the manner in which her friend reacted had more of an effect on her than her words had on him. It was devastating.

;;I'm not saying that her taking them in is a bad idea,;; argued the raven-haired boy.

;;I-I know,;; Vivio said sadly, not quite meeting his eyes. ;;I shouldn't-shouldn't have said that. I can be _really_ dumb sometimes.;;

;;No kidding,;; he teased, and Vivio let out a breath which she had no memory of taking in. ;;Fate taking them in really won't have as much effect as you directly opposing their parents would, anyway.;;

;;Right,;; Vivio agreed, and broke the connection off.

As the train ride progressed, Vivio had to admit that she saw the point Harry was trying to make even more clearly for every minute that passed. She was also reminded of her original reasoning for convincing Daphne to be in Ravenclaw - it was the easiest way to get the girl away from a potentially abusive household.

Still, there was something about letting Astoria do this directly in front of her parents that unnerved Vivio to no end.

* * *

The trip back to Platform 9 3/4 felt as though it was not even half the length of the initial trip to Hogwarts, and nobody could argue that it was because Harry was less nervous than he was on the first time around.

While he had quite a few good arguments as to why letting Astoria pull off her plan against her parents was a good idea, he could not argue it was the most unbiased choice that had been made in his lifetime. There were a number of things that he wished he had said to the Dursleys while in their care, and if Astoria was going to say something of the sort of her parents, who was he to stop her?

His feelings of unease were only increased upon seeing the large sea of colors that he quickly identified as people, all of whom were waiting for a family member to pour out of the wizarding train.

"Blimey," Ron breathed out, "I didn't remember it being this full the first time around."

"If you weren't so late, maybe you would have seen that is was!" Vivio countered playfully, turning to Daphne "Wasn't it?"

"Yeah," the girl said, almost automatically.

"Oh, Daphne," Susan said with a sad sigh. "I'm going to be right by your side for this, alright?"

"Don't try saying no," Ron piped up. "We'll _all_ be there anyway, right guys?"

"Without a doubt," Harry piped up with a nod, just as both Vivio and Neville agreed in some shape or another.

"Not the best idea," Daphne said, shaking her head. "The less of you that my parents know that I spend time with the better."

"They'll learn about us anyway," argued Neville, who did his best at keeping the rolling of his eyes discrete. "Hogwarts isn't exactly the best place for keeping secrets at, after all."

It was clear that Daphne wanted to argue her point further, but no words of the sort came. Instead, the girl seemed to start brooding on the possible ways in which the following confrontation could go wrong, and it quickly became clear that neither of the other girls in the compartment were going to stand for that. Before the spectacled occupant had a say in the matter, each of her hands were taken by one of the two, and she found herself being dragged from the compartment.

"Dragging her right off to her doom," Ron muttered with no small amount of humor. "Girls can be mental."

"'Course they can be," Neville said with a grin. "So can we, though."

"I hope you're not planning to do something to their parents," Harry said with a frown. "If you are, just think about Astoria; her parents are going to be angry enough without you doing anything to make the situation worse."

In his defense, Neville had the decency to look sheepish at the rebuttal, and any sign of a scheme being cooked up disappeared immediately. It did not seem as though Ron fully agreed with Harry on that matter, but he made no signs that he was going to do anything to the contrary.

As the three exited the express, Harry used the vantage point provided to search for the girls. It would not have been the most simple task to find them in a platform full of people had they gone far, but while the other two were no longer dragging Daphne along, the pace they were setting could not be considered a sprint by the definition of most people.

"We all talk about how we'll be by Daphne's side for this, and you just leave us in the dust anyway," Harry teased with a hint of mock-annoyance. "How does that work?"

"It wasn't too hard," Vivio said with a small grin. "All we had to do was - was -"

Somebody in their group of six must have been a terrible influence - not even half of a braincell had to be used for Harry to realize that it was most likely Ron - because Vivio did something that Harry had never before imagined the girl doing, in the form of swearing rather loudly.

Harry could not bring himself to blame her for this in the slightest, for he spotted the incoming forms of the Greengrass family and a rather huge collection of adults heading towards them a mere second after she had, and almost shared in her reaction.

"What a charming friend you've made, Daphne," Lord Greengrass drawled, to the apparent amusement of the sneering audience that he had managed to collect.

"I've found she's better company than you've ever been, father," Daphne countered, her emotionless mask taking hold. Harry was pleased to see that smug look that the man had been donning faltered at that. This was clearly not how he had planned for this confrontation to start out.

"Of course you have," he said, hiding whatever emotion had hit him not a moment earlier. "You've never had the best taste in character - you decided to befriend the Bones girl instead of Pansy Parkinson, after all."

Just about the whole group of children looked as though they were about to leap to the defense of their friends - Harry knew that he was - but Daphne waved them down.

"I admit that there are many things about me that are flawed," she conceded with a grim smile. "It's a shame I wasn't raised better than this, wouldn't you agree?"

Lord Greengrass clearly had not expected his eldest daughter to put up this much of a fight, because he looked as though he was actually impressed by the performance that she was putting on. Any sense of embarrassment that he was feeling quickly eclipsed that, though, and Harry got the idea that this pleased Daphne to no end.

"You were raised to the highest extent of Pureblood tradition," the man countered, adding a small amount of anger into his voice as to impress the crowd around him. "Your mother and I can hardly be blamed that you've ignored everything we've been trying to teach you."

"If you were decent at teaching, then perhaps I would have learned something," the girl said in a rather bored tone of voice. "Really, father; I believe you've come here for a reason, haven't you?"

The Greengrass patriarch took a moment to stifle his building rage, and Harry used this moment to get a reading on the youngest Greengrass. Astoria looked nothing but heartbroken at the fight that was occurring in front of her, and Harry could not stop the frown that took hold at that sight. To his knowledge, she had always thought of their family as being happy, if a bit dysfunctional, so this could not be an easy thing for her to witness.

"Yes, I have," the man said darkly. "As of this moment, you are no longer a member of the Greengrass family, and are no longer welcome onto any any of our properties. Furthermore, your trust vault has been drained into Astoria's, and any property of yours that you have left in the mansion now belong to her as well."

"Well, at least Tori got out of this well," Daphne mused, throwing a pointed look towards her sister as to tell her not to muck it up for herself. Instead, this seemed to make the younger Greengrass feel even worse about it.

"Of course she has," the man said with a light sneer returning. "She has done nothing wrong, and is being rewarded for it. If you had valued the family name and been sorted into Slytherin, you would have been rewarded as well."

"The Hat never even considered sorting me there," Daphne said, and Harry could not help but to suspect that she was lying about that.

"Then you are even more of a disappointment than I'd first imagined," the man said with a tone of finality, a mere second before turning and walking away. "Come; we need not waste anymore time with this child."

For her part, Daphne seemed to be entirely unaffected by the manner in which her father had addressed her, but the same could not be said about her sister.

Astoria was visibly shaking as she looked between her sister and father, and made no attempt to follow the man in his retreat. Instead, she seemed to go into deep thought for a moment before slowly making her way over to her sister and hugging her. Daphne tried to nudge her off, but the younger Greengrass would not be deterred.

"Astoria!" called the girl's father, causing her to cringe. "_What_ are you doing?"

"Hugging my sister," she said defiantly, a mere second before shrinking down at the look her father shot at her.

"She is no longer your sister," he said plainly. "She is a Blood-Traitor and should be treated as such."

Daphne attempted once more to convince her sister to go with them, but she may as well have done nothing, for all of the good it did.

"If you're disowning her then you need to disown me, too," the girl said, detaching from her sister and crossing her arms over her chest, "'cause I'm going to be sorted into Gryffindor!"

The surrounding group was either too afraid for the girl - Harry could tell that Vivio was having one of her silent panic attacks, even - or too angry at her to say anything, and so a silence fell over them, only to be pierced by a bark-like laugh that echoed through the area. It took Harry but a moment to identify the source of this laugh as his godfather, who was grinning at Lord Greengrass.

"Hear that, Charlie?" the dog animagus said with an air of satisfaction. "Against all odds, your children are actually decent people - it may not be too late for you, even!"

"My name is Charles, Black," the man said, with a twinge of annoyance invading his voice, "and I don't see anything decent about what they're doing."

"You wouldn't," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "You were always so stiffly about such things."

"And you were always a shame to your family name," Lord Greengrass said with a vicious smile playing at his lips. "We all remember you back in Hogwarts - constantly doing the most idiotic things, scheming with the Blood-Traitors, and constantly acting against the most noble house in the school."

That last one was simply too much for Harry's godfather, who laughed so loudly that it stopped several completely unrelated conversations all around them. This did nothing to appease the other man.

"It's your fault that I'm disowning these two in the first place," the Greengrass patriarch growled. "If you hadn't set such a precedent for what they will end up being, then perhaps I would be able to allow their sorting to slide."

"You're disowning the younger one, now? Well, it's good to know that some good came from all this," Sirius said with a toothy grin. "Now, you may as well get going - no need to waste anymore time on us."

For a long moment, Harry was afraid that a duel was about to break out on the platform, but Charles Greengrass merely spun on his heels and continued his previous retreat after that long, tense moment passed.

"Okay then," the ex-convict muttered, turning to the two Greengrass sisters. "You two doing alright?"

"I am," Daphne said with a frown, turning her attention to her sister who - despite the brave face she put on earlier - was crying into Daphne's shoulder. "I can't say the same thing about her, though."

"Well," the man said, looking between the two with an inquisitive look. "I suppose we could take you in, for the time being."

"Are you sure?" Daphne asked, eyebrows shooting straight up and out of sight within her hairline. "I mean, we could probably manage on our own for two weeks."

"You probably could," the man agreed with a tone that held more than a bit of sarcasm, "but what will your sister do once you go back to Hogwarts? Besides; it _is_ sort of my fault that this happened to you, as your father was more than happy to admit."

If Daphne had an argument against this she didn't use it, instead opting to direct Harry's godfather towards the location where she had put her trunk so that he could get it for her. Harry had no doubt that she would have gotten it on her own, had Astoria not all but attached herself to the elder sibling.

;;Do you think treating Daphne's father like that was a good idea?;; Harry asked the man, just as he was lifting up the trunk belonging to Daphne. ;;I mean, he could be influential in the Wizengamot...;;

;;True,;; Sirius admitted, ;;but trying to win him over would be a waste of time. He's a man who truly believes that anybody who isn't a Pureblood are inferior to him, as well as the people who agree with them. I can see where your worries are coming from, but there isn't any chance of winning him over, because the TSAB is filled with the sort of people he hates most.;;

While Harry could see the point that his godfather was trying to make, he still could not quite see why antagonizing the man was anything but a bad idea. He, however, never vocalized this, instead opting to help his godfather in collecting the three trunks.

By the time they were finished, Astoria seemed to have cried herself out, and the look she threw in Sirius' direction told Harry that it was most likely because the girl had found another, possibly worse emotion to take its place.

* * *

Revenge would be sweet.

Those were the thoughts flying through the mind of the snowy white owl as she sailed through the skies above Muggle London. While she had not ridden the train with her brother - that act was far too boring the first time around for her to do it again - she had been trailing it for the entire day, so she saw everything that happened with the Greengrass sisters.

If there was one thing - in Hedwig's opinion, at least - that the Wizarding World needed to learn, it was not to mess with Harry James Potter or any of his friends, and the familiar would be more than happy to be the one to teach this to them.

Quickly an empty alley near Charring Cross Road caught her eye, and she flew straight into it so that she could revert to her most human form. In this particular form her eyes were much more human - although still retained their yellow coloring - and her wings disappeared with the rest of her bird traits.

This took more energy than she would have liked in order to maintain, and she would not have bothered with it were there not a Statute of Secrecy to uphold.

Fortunately the walk to the Leaky Cauldron was rather short from where she had landed, and she quickly passed through the building into Diagon Alley. Once there she was sure not to be distracted by any of the fantastical objects on display in the shops all around, and instead trekked directly to the marble building which she knew to be Gringotts.

"Good day, Miss," the first goblin that saw her said stiffly. "Is there a matter I could help you with today?"

"Yes, actually," Hedwig said, predatory grin spreading over her features. "Could I talk to the goblin in charge of the Greengrass vaults? I have something to tell him that I think he should know."

There were a number of things that could have done it - the way she spoke, the look on her face, or the way she worded her statement - because the goblin seemed to realize that she had something that could make life a little more difficult for the Greengrass family, and that knowledge seemed to amuse him.

"Very well," he said, voice no longer stiff in the slightest. "If you could wait here for a moment."

A moment it was, too, because Hedwig didn't think it could have been any longer than two minutes between the time the goblin left Hedwig and when he returned to lead her to the office of Gornuk.

"Have a seat," the goblin at the other side of a particularly large table said. "Now, what can I do for you today, Miss Potter?"

Hedwig could not remember being as surprised as she was at that moment, which seemed to be exactly what the goblin wanted, because he looked as though he was about to start laughing.

"Don't look so surprised," said the goblin, genuine amusement evident in his voice. "Some of us goblins have our ways of getting people's names. It's a rather useful spell to assure that the people who do business with us are who they claim to be."

"Yeah," Hedwig said weakly, realizing that this was probably not the best idea that she had ever put into action, "I can see how it would be."

"Yes, well then, I hear you have some information on my clients," the goblin said with a predatory smile that did the impossible, by making Hedwig feel as though she was the prey for once in her life. "May I ask what it is?"

"Okay, well, I don't know if it will be much use to you," the owl said nervously, "but they just disowned their youngest daughter..."

The goblin laughed. Hedwig had not expected this, so the sudden sound caused her to not only jump out of her seat, but fight to stop a scream as well.

"Yes, I can certainly use that," the goblin said. "I take it that this is some form of revenge for them disowning your friend?"

"Something like that," Hedwig agreed with a small grin. "So, what are you going to do?"

"Ah yes, I suppose your friend has the right to know," the goblin said, nodding his approval to Hedwig's attitude. "As Lord Greengrass has given up his guardianship of his daughter, he no longer holds any claims to the vaults held in her name. As such, any of the money that he'd previously put in her trust vault is no longer accessible to him. Although I can give you no specifics, I can tell you that it's a rather sizable sum."

That was exactly what Hedwig had been hoping for, and she didn't stop her face from showing it. She quickly bid farewell to the goblin, and - something that would never cease to amuse her greatly - passed right by Charles Greengrass on her way out of the building.

Although she would later realize that angering Lord Greengrass any further than he already had been that day was a probably not the best of ideas, the girl was perfectly content as she reverted back to her owl form and left Diagon Alley behind her.

* * *

A/N - Sorry that the chapter's so short, guys. There was a whole section that I cut out of it because - if I'm to be completely honest - it felt rushed, the characterization felt off, and it wasn't even that important. All that was in it was the main characters returning to the Claudia, and that's really it. Nothing new was revealed, and with the terrible characterizations...

Well, the last few chapters have averaged around 7,000 words, so a bit of a breather chapter can't hurt too much, I guess.

Anyway, yes, people; family drama. It is a Nanoha fic as much as it is a Harry Potter one, and so there were bound to be many family-induced problems. Can you think of something from Nanoha canon that isn't? I can't!

Airier - Everything that the TSAB does is going to bite them in the butt, dude. Every single thing.

The GAR - Okay, I'll admit that was more of a case of terrible wording on my part. The TSAB won the war with Belka in the same manor that the United States won the war with Great Britain - there were no United States back then, but they became the United States afterwards. So, yeah, the TSAB in that regard would be Mid-Childa, Vaizen, Karnarog and other such planets that would later become the TSAB, and not the TSAB itself. Sorry for the confusion.

jgkitarel - No, Chrono has no clue what he's gotten himself into. I assure you, though, that Sirius doesn't burn bridges very often. And yeah, Vivio's problem with magic is something like that. That's not exactly what it is, but it's still something simple that she could solve pretty easily.

Guest - Harry's sister is Hedwig. I'm fairly certain that I made a point of having her called that several times in past few chapters, although I probably should have come right out and said it.

Nyamu - Stupidly literal are the words I believe you are looking for to describe me, and I'm glad to see you're taking it in good humor. I can assure you that Harry would never start teasing Vivio like that, since he knows that she really dislikes people thinking of her as "Your Highness" about as much as he likes being known as the Boy-Who-Lived.


	12. Winter Wonders

Disclaimer: I don't know if I was subconsciously thinking of the fact that my last chapter was one of my shortest, but this one is without a doubt the longest one I've written so far. And I still don't own any of the things in it.

* * *

Winter Wonders

"Harry!" was the first word the boy was aware of, and he tried to cover his head with his pillow in order to drown out the sound. "Harry, get up! It's Christmas, Harry! Presents!"

That last word was the only one which the boy needed to hear to energize himself. While he had been given what could arguably be called presents by the Dursleys, they had never been anything substantial, and so this would be the first Christmas which he could really enjoy.

Vivio seemed to be rather satisfied by how well her wakeup call worked, and quickly slipped out of the room to allow Harry the privacy to get ready.

As he was scooting around his closet for clothes, he could do nothing but once again reflect on how much his life changed from the moment he learned that he was a wizard. There was little doubt in his mind that had that single event had not happened he would be sitting in the cupboard under the stairs, once against spared any of the festivities.

As fun as he was sure that sounded, he preferred where he was.

It was only about three minutes for him to chose his outfit - consisting of mostly green and red, because he saw no reason not to wear such - and he was out of the door. He could not have any free reign of the ship, though, because Vivio was waiting for him, and she practically dragged him right to the nearest lounge onboard the ship.

"Wow."

The room they had entered contained six decently-sized piles of presents, each of which contained gifts donning a different name.

"All of our presents," Vivio said with a sweeping gesture of the arm in the direction of the gifts. "And before you get too eager, remember that 'our' includes Hedwig, Daph, Tori and Einhard as well."

"Still a lot," Harry had to note, looking over the pile which contained the gifts with his name on them. "Merlin, who is there to send me all of this stuff?"

"I know off the top of my head that Neville and Ron each got you one," Vivio said with a small smile. "Daphne wanted to get you one, but she doesn't have any money left, and Tori..."

"Got it," Harry nodded. "Anybody else you can think of?"

"Not off the top of my head, no," Vivio said with a quick negatory shake. "I think Susan may have sent you one, but that could be me remembering one of my own. Sorry."

"She did, though," replied the voice of Hedwig, and Harry turned to see his sister standing at the doorway with the two Greengrass sisters standing behind her. "I think it was her aunt's owl who was carrying it, too, because that was a fun fight..."

"You fought the owl carrying Harry's present?" asked Vivio, wide eyes trailed on the familiar.

"Of course," the bird said, almost defensively. "How else was I supposed to get Harry's present from him? It's not like he can get into space or anything, and he wasn't too willing to just give it to me!"

There was little doubt in Harry's mind that the girl in front of him quite enjoyed the chance to fight another owl, and he had to wonder if she even gave him a chance to 'just give it to her.' For some reason, he doubted that very much.

"Alright," Astoria piped up, "so where's Einhard?"

For some reason, Einhard was one of the only people aboard the Claudia which the younger Greengrass was really friendly with. In every other case the girl was needlessly distant from everybody who happened to not be her sister, which - as one could imagine - was nearly everybody aboard the vessel.

At least she adjusted to the idea of being part of a multi-dimensional space bureaucracy quickly enough, Harry had to muse.

"She'll be here soon enough," Vivio said with a smile. "She's trying her luck at another fight with Kylie Summers."

"I'll give her a minute," Daphne laughed. "Those fights tend to be rather short."

"She tries!" Tori argued with a huff. "Have _you_ gotten into a fight with Kylie recently?"

"I'm not saying there's anything at fault with her," the older Greengrass said, throwing her arms up in a way signifying surrender. "In fact, I'm impressed she can put up such a good fight. I don't know if you've seen a fight with the two before, but they get moving so quickly that it's hard to keep up with them."

"She _has_ improved since I last saw her," Vivio agreed. "Cadet Summers, I mean. She was pretty clumsy when I left for Hogwarts."

"Really?" Daphne asked, doing as she had when Harry first saw her by shooting her eyebrows to a height where they were no longer visible. "Are you sure you're thinking of the right person."

"Huh," Vivio muttered, crossing her arms and putting on a thoughtful face for a few seconds before shrugging. "Maybe not. At any rate, Einhard told me that we shouldn't wait for her and open our presents right away, so let's get doing this!"

Not even Astoria found any issues with opening her presents without her friend present - she was the one who said to do it, after all - and the group quickly started digging into the various wrapping papers that hid the identities of the gifts' contents.

From Ron and Neville, Harry received various types of candies, which alone was better than the haul he got on any previous Christmases. He could only guess that this was because Ron couldn't think of anything better, while Neville didn't trust himself enough to pick out any other sort of presents.

The best gift from one of this school friends, however, was from Susan Bones. The girl had gotten him a book of all the loopholes in the Wizarding World's laws, and Harry could only imagine that this book was not made to be in either of their possessions. Vivio had gotten a similar present, and Harry had to worry about whether or not the redhead would get in trouble for it.

The two presents that surprised him most were from Erio and Einhard, since he had not really been expecting any presents from either of the two.

The Dragon Knight had gotten him a Terran book on several spells that were described as being elemental in nature. Fire, water, ice and the like, Harry would have to guess. It served to remind him that any spells he had were only ones that directly effected his enemies, which was rather foolish when he thought about it, because Barrier Jackets could block a large majority of the effects that most of them reaped.

Einhard had also gotten him a book, and this one was on the proper ways in which to train yourself while making sure to avoid wearing yourself out. Harry couldn't help but to think that this one was meant to tell him something, and he couldn't suppress the snort at how transparent it really was.

This pile of books was quickly added to by Vivio, who had gotten him a book on everything he would need to know about familiars. While he had access to the few books Vivio had in her trunk on the subject, having his own that he could consult at any time made this present anything but pointless.

"Have enough books yet?" Hedwig asked, staring at the pile with a raised eyebrow.

"Nearly," the boy replied with a shrug. "I think that this is another one, though."

Indeed, Professor Lupin had gotten him a book on all of the dark creatures that are common in the Wizarding World, including ways to fight them all. This probably wasn't half as useful as the man had expected it to be, but it probably contained some interesting things nonetheless.

"One more left," Hedwig said, holding the last gift out to her brother. "Not a book, but this one is from Dumbledore. He didn't seem to want you to know that, but he shouldn't have given it to me of all owls if that was the case."

"He gave it directly to you?" asked Harry, his eyebrows sailing straight up. "When did he get the chance to do that?"

"The other day," the owl shrugged. "I was hanging out in the Hogwarts Owlery, talking with some of the other owls, and he came in with a package. I had nothing better to do, so I took it, and it was addressed to you of all people!"

"You can talk to other owls?"

"Yes, but only when in my owl form, and let me tell you; they like to gossip," the snowy white owl smiled fondly. "For some reason I can talk to snakes in my human form - which is weird - but I don't think that has anything to do with me being a familiar."

"You probably got that from me," Harry agreed. "I've talked to a snake before, at any rate."

"Mystery solved, then," the owl shrugged, tossing the gift at her brother. "Anyway, this is your last present, so stop talking and let me get back to opening my own!"

Harry grinned as he caught the present with relative ease, noting that it was one of the most light presents he'd yet received. The reason for this became obvious as soon as what appeared to be a silvery, practically liquid cloak slipped out of the wrapping.

"No bloody way!" Astoria squealed, dropping the book which must have been one of her presents in favor of staring at Harry's gift with wide eyes. "That's an invisibility cloak!"

"No guesses what it does, then," Harry noted, picking the object up and donning it immediately. Even the two who had known what it was before that day gawked at where he stood, and he saw why as soon as he held his arm out in front of himself.

He was, in fact, invisible.

"Huh," the boy mused. "I take it that these aren't exactly common, are they?"

"Not even in our wildest dreams," Daphne answered with a nod. "Not even my father could manage to get his hands on one of them, and you can be certain that he tried."

"How did Dumbledore get one, then?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow that none of the others could see. "I mean, I know that he's one of the most influential people in the Wizarding World..."

"I think you just answered your own question, bro," Hedwig said with a snort. "Good job!"

"Prat," was the only rebuttal Harry could think of, and he picked up the note which came with the the cloak. It was little more than overly cryptic about who it could have been from, but there was one thing which it was clear on. "It was our father's."

"He's not -"

"That's not possible," Daphne noted, cutting off whatever Hedwig was about to say. "Invisibility cloaks don't last much longer than ten years without starting to wear out. While it's possible that a cloak of your father's would still be working now, I doubt Professor Dumbledore would give you a cloak that could stop working at any time."

"Are you sure?" Vivio asked, eyed wide. "Why would the Professor lie to Harry, though?"

"Maybe he's not!" chirped Astoria, who had been rather withdrawn since her sister had mentioned their father earlier. "I mean, the story of the Deathly Hallows -"

"Is a story," Daphne said firmly. "Nothing but fiction, and I think our run-in with the TSAB would have taught you that. There's no way Death is actually real, let alone the idea that he specifically gave Ignotus the cloak."

"So maybe he made it himself!" Tori huffed. "Every story has to be kinda real!"

"Alright, enough of this," Hedwig said sternly. "I don't know what the Deathly Hallows are, but ruling something out just because there's a story about it seems like a dumb idea to me."

"That's how many Lost Logia end up being," Vivio agreed with a nod. "Nobody knows how they work anymore, so there are many stories about how they were created floating around. Let me tell you; some of those get really weird."

"How weird are we talking?" Daphne asked. "Because in this story, the three Deathly Hallows were given to the Peverell brothers by Death itself."

"That may just have to do with the name," Vivio mused. "Is there any other reason why the objects would be called the Deathly Hallows?"

"Yeah!" Astoria said in a tone of voice that conveyed the message that this was something Vivio should have known already. "The Resurrection Stone lets people talk to other people who live in the afterlife, and the masters of the Elder Wand get killed by other people who want it! I don't know what's up with the cloak, though..."

"I think I've got it, thank you," Vivio said with a smile. "I assume the cloak is related to those two in some way? Well, because those two have some relation to death - however unintentional it may have been, in the case of the wand - they gained the name Deathly Hallows, and the cloak was grouped in with them at some point. Later everybody would forget their real origins, or perhaps a parent would like to teach their child a lesson with a story loosely based on the real events, and that story quickly became more famous than the original. It's really as simple as that."

That made sense, Harry had to agree.

There was little doubt that Vivio knew what she was talking about on the matter. Ignoring the matter-of-fact way she spoke, the girl worked in the Infinite Library whenever she had quite a bit of free time, so she probably knew quite a few mythological stories about Lost Logia, along with the ways in which those stories came about.

That opened a whole new can of worms, though.

"This is a Lost Logia," he noted, shedding the cloak immediately.

"Maybe it isn't," Vivio said, shaking her head. "You should probably take it to somebody to check."

"Oh!" Hedwig chirped out, causing every other person in the room to turn to her with an inquisitive look. "Fate wanted to see you as soon as you were done here! May as well bring it right to her."

"Alright," Harry said, mind racing to figure out what this could be about. "Could you bring my presents back to my room?"

"Maybe later," the owl said with a sheepish grin, "because Padfoot wanted to see me about your gift. He's very sorry, by the way, but it's going to be a few days late."

A swell of happiness rippled through the boy's being, which only increased when he realized that Fate may have wanted to see him for a similar reason.

"You can probably get your gifts back to your room before heading off," Vivio suggested. "I mean, they didn't know when we were going to be done here, so they obviously wouldn't mind us taking a few more minutes. That's what I'm doing, at any rate."

"You're all busy?" Astoria practically complained. "It's a holiday!"

"Tori," Daphne muttered in a warning tone.

"It's fine!" Vivio giggled. "It _is_ pretty silly, doing all this today. Christmas, unfortunately, isn't a widely celebrated holiday in the TSAB, so it doesn't count as a day which we take off. Regardless of how many of the people onboard actually celebrate it."

"Poor you," Daphne said with a grin. "Well then, since this party seems to be over, we should probably be getting back to our room to organize all of this stuff."

"Daphne!" Astoria shouted, and this time it was doubtlessly a complaint. "It's Christmas; we shouldn't have to organize things!"

"Enough," Daphne said, and the girl's smile was enough to ruin any image of her being truly annoyed by her sister's antics. "It won't take too long, and then we can do whatever there is to do up here, alright?"

"Fine," the younger Greengrass conceded. "Let's just get it over with, already."

Daphne was especially smug as she collected her own gifts and exited the room, followed shortly by her disgruntled sister.

"Tori was acting normal around us," Vivio noted with a radiant smile. "She's already getting better."

"I don't know about that," Hedwig countered with a frown. "It _is_ a holiday, after all. Things could go right back to as they were as quickly as tomorrow."

Vivio's smile faltered at that, which was a sight that Harry hated to see, even during the rare times immediately after she accidentally said something that hurt him.

"Let the future be in the future, Hedwig," he said calmly, shooting a warning glance at the familiar. "None of us know what's going on in Tori's head, so we should leave it as something to worry about later. For now, we seem to have a busy day in front of us."

* * *

Let the future be in the future.

How her brother came up with such things Hedwig would never know, but she would be the first to admit that she hadn't inherited that part of his character.

This didn't bother her too much - she felt that she'd gotten all of his Slytherin traits, which she thought to be a good tradeoff - but there was a part of her which was a bit jealous of him for being able to be as hopelessly optimistic as Vivio at times.

"You're thinking too much, Frostwing."

The girl jumped, and felt a flow of embarrassment pass through her when she realized that she'd been brooding on that topic for the entire trip to her destination.

"Shut up, Padfoot," she countered, mock-glaring at the man. "Somebody has to make up for the fact that you don't think at all."

"Touché," the man grinned. "So, how are the holidays going?"

"Alright," she said, thinking back to the opening of presents with a smile. "Harry seemed to be really happy at all the gifts he got. There really weren't many, and the best has yet to come."

At those words her eyes shifted to the bubbling cauldron that the man was working on, and a frown presented itself at the sickly brown paste that was it's contents.

"Are you sure you're making it right?"

"Absolutely!" the man nodded. "I remember it looking horrible, and I assure you that it tasted even worse."

"I don't envy them, then."

"You had no reason to envy them in the first place," the man laughed. "One of the perks of being a familiar is that you get your animal form by default."

"I guess," Hedwig muttered dismissively.

There was a long moment of silence as Hedwig observed the man stirring the paste in the cauldron in several strange ways, and she made a mental note not to ever pursue learning how to make potions.

Quickly enough the quiet got to the familiar, and she decided to pursue a topic she had been meaning to for a while.

"I've heard about this potion, actually," she said, staring at the man with a raised eyebrow. "Everybody thinks it's rubbish."

"I can see where they're coming from," the man agreed with a nod, "and I would have agreed several months ago. All it does is transforms you into your animagus form for a few minutes, which - while good for learning what your form is - tells you nothing in regards for how to actually gain control of this power."

"Exactly," Hedwig nodded. "It's useless."

"Normally," the man said, raising his eyebrow at the girl. "However, both Vivio and your brother have an ability that most wizards don't have. Could you tell me what this is?"

They had telepathy, but for some reason Hedwig didn't think the man was talking about that. Other than that there was really only one ability which they shared in common, and when Hedwig thought about it, that one seemed to be the one Padfoot was more likely to have been talking about.

"They can both control how their magic flows through their bodies?"

"Exactly," the man nodded. "Not only this, but they can feel the magic acting in them. If they could memorize how the potion effects them, they could be able to reproduce the effects. Instant animagi right there, although it would take a bit more practice to truly earn the title. Of course this is all theoretical, but it won't hurt to try, I don't think."

A part of Hedwig wanted to warn him that somebody saying that it couldn't hurt to try something instantly made it dangerous to try, but she kept her mouth shut. She knew, at least, that he used the same potion when he was younger, so there was little doubt of that being the thing that hurt them.

"What if they don't memorize it?"

"Then their Devices will be able to record the effects, and they can work it out from there," the man shrugged. "I swear, everything's so much easier as a part of the TSAB, it isn't even funny."

"I guess it would be," the familiar said with a small smirk. "So, when should it be done?"

"A few days," the man said sadly. "I was hoping it would be done before today, but you really can't rush potion making."

"It'll be fine," the familiar said, trying her best to put on a reassuring smile. "I doubt Harry will care _when_ he gets your gift, as long as he gets it eventually. He didn't even seem to be too bothered when it looked as though you hadn't even gotten him one."

Padfoot looked to be a bit hurt by the implications of that statement, and Hedwig couldn't really think of anything else to say to try and cheer him up.

"He doesn't expect even the people close to him to buy him things," the girl finally said, deciding that trying couldn't make the situation much worse. "He knows that you care about him, and that's really good enough for him."

"It shouldn't be."

"No," Hedwig agreed, "it shouldn't be."

Another silence fell between the two, but it was a much more comfortable one than the first. It only lasted the several seconds it took for Hedwig to look back on their conversation and notice something strange, though.

"Padfoot," the girl said, arching an eyebrow. "You know Harry doesn't have his own Device, right?"

* * *

Vivio felt her cheeks tinging pink as she made her way to the Medical Wing.

It was only two days ago that she made a complete fool of herself while trying to cast Terran Spells in front of Shamal, and the woman had said she was going to study the session to see if she could find out why none of the spells worked right. Having looked at Chris' recording of the whole thing made the idea of Shamal studying it one of the most embarrassing things that the younger girl could think of at present time.

"Chris," the girl said, prompting the Device in question to stick it's head out of her pocket, "I'm an idiot."

The Device floated out of the girl's pocket and nodded his head profusely, being forced to dodge as his master sent a few playful swipes his way.

"Really, though; just watch," the girl said with a laugh. "This is going to be something so simple that I could have fixed it seven times over."

The device seemed as though it would be laughing if it could, and quickly shot off in the direction of the Medical Wing. Vivio did nothing to stop him, as him arriving there would serve to inform Shamal that she was on her way.

It only took her half a minute to arrive at the doors she knew were to Shamal's office, and Chris' absence either meant he had already informed Shamal of Vivio's arrival, or had gone off in another direction entirely direction at some point along the line.

For some reason, Vivio couldn't decide which would be worse.

"Shamal!" Vivio called with a knock at the door. "I'm here!"

There was a pause as the sounds of Shamal blundering around on the other side of the door was heard, just before the door flew open. The woman standing on the other end of it looked as though she was rather tired, and Vivio had little doubt that this was because she was busying herself with something just beforehand.

"Good to see you, Vivio; come in," the woman said, ushering the girl into the doorway. "How have you been?"

"I've been alright," Vivio said, walking over to the chair for guests at the woman's desk. "I've been sleeping, which is a good thing to do!"

The woman laughed as she took her spot back at her side of the desk, and wasted no time in summoning up an energy screen, presumably to make sure she was remembering everything she wanted to say correctly.

"Now then; I've discovered the problem with your ability to cast Terran spells," the woman said, slipping into a phase of professionalism that was a bit lax for any patients who she didn't happen to know very well.

"It's not bad, is it?" asked Vivio, staring at the doctor with a sense of dread piling up within her.

"Not really," the woman said cautiously. "To understand what's wrong you must first understand how your Linker Core works, so let's go over that."

"I already know how Linker Cores work!" Vivio chirped out. "I know a lot about them!"

"I don't doubt that," the woman said patiently, "but you don't exactly have a normal Linker Core, nor would we be dealing with one anyway."

Vivio often wished to be a normal girl so that she didn't have to deal with all of the bells and whistles that came with being a clone of the last ruler of the Belkan Empire. Her family line had done so many things to themselves that there were times she wondered exactly how human she really was, although those thoughts weren't the hardest to push out of her mind.

The fact that nobody alive knew what half of the stuff done to her was, however, did serve to frighten her at times.

"Alright then," Vivio nodded. "I wanna be able to turn Aunt Hayate's hair pink by the time I get back to Hogwarts!"

From the look on her face, Shamal was in no way disapproving of the idea presented to her.

"Ignoring that for now," the woman said, "I think you know the basics of a Linker Core, don't you?"

"It takes in the magic around us and filters it in a usable way," Vivio nodded, grinning at the question that she could have answered years ago, and even said she could have answered mere seconds ago. "Not that the TSAB has found ways to use each form of magic..."

"That's good," Shamal nodded. "Well, the manner in which the Core of a Mid-Childan Mage and Belkan Knight will filter this magic will allow the magic user to control the magic directly. A mage will use this to shoot the magic directly at their enemy, and a knight will use this to add power behind their attacks."

"Got it," Vivio nodded. "You know I learned all of this years ago, right?"

"I'd hope so," Shamal snorted, shaking her head in amusement. "Now, however, we can talk about the Core of a Terran Wizard. It does something we never thought possible, and filters magic in a way that can easily manipulate the wizard's environments."

"I've seen that happen before, though," Vivio frowned. "Devices change shape all of the time, and I still have my Adult Form."

"Devices are machines which are designed to be able to do that, and can only change between two forms," Shamal said with a small grin. "You're Core isn't exactly normal, as I've brought up already. Any other cases of a similar phenomenon would be from magic itself being twisted enough to act as something else."

"Huh," Vivio muttered, her mind quickly working to absorb all of that information. "Could you give an example?"

"Alright," the doctor nodded, looking as though she'd expected to have to do this. "Take a homing fire spell, for example. A mage or knight would do this by launching their magic at an enemy and warping it to act as fire would, and then keeping it barreling after their opponent. A wizard, however, would do this by summoning actual fire and warping it with their magic to follow an opponent."

"So, anything a mage or knight will do will be done by making magic act differently than normal, while a wizard will be using anything other than actual magic," nodded Vivio, making sure to memorize the new information. "What about spells like Protego, then? I've seen it before, and it looks like a magic shield."

"From what we've been able to gather, Protego is just making the air in front of the wizard act differently," Shamal shrugged, "although it's magic doing it, so that's really just nitpicking."

"Got it!" Vivio nodded, and it didn't take more than a second to think of another thing wrong with that explanation. "What about the Familiar Creation Ritual? That makes the familiar able to shape shift, and the process even makes them turn into their human form."

"You need all the answers, don't you?" the woman asked with a small chortle. "You noticed how much magic you lost from casting the ritual, didn't you? Then Harry passed out from the magic it took to create Hedwig's Linker Core. Just because a Core is attuned to something doesn't mean it can't do something else, but - as you discovered - it wasn't half as efficient as a wizard would have been able to do it, and something of even the scale that a wizard uses on a daily basis would be impractical to a knight or mage."

"I assume that there's something that a mage or a knight could do easy compared to a wizard, then?"

"Of course," Shamal nodded. "Shooting Arts are more efficient for a mage, and a knight would have a much easier time augmenting their own strength. A wizard's strength in combat is transfiguration, so long as they have the mind to work it into a fight."

"How can a wizard be worse at Shooting Arts, though?" Vivio pursued. "I mean, a wizard can use elemental attacks like mages do, so they could probably keep up."

"Aren't you here about why your own magic isn't working?" Shamal asked with a contained laugh, and continued on before Vivio could say anything. "While a wizard could use fire or lighting or any other element they could think of, they could never manage to create something on the level of Starlight Breaker. That's just not how the magic is filtered to work."

"Alright," said the throughly embarrassed Vivio, who had to wonder how they had gotten that off topic as quickly as they had. "So, how can I fix the problem with my magic?"

"There we go," Shamal noted with a pleased nod, seemingly unaware of any further embarrassment that that comment may have caused Vivio. "Now, your Core - while not unique - is different from the average Linker Core; it's split into sections, and your Terran magic comes from a different one than your Belkan and Mid-Childan magics."

"Yeah, I know," Vivio nodded. "So what?"

"That's everything that's wrong with your spell casting, Vivio," the woman grinned lightly. "The part of your Linker Core where the Mid-Childan and Belkan magics come from is much more built up than the part which your Terran magic comes from. As a result, this part of your Core tends to filter more magic than the part you need, and it sort of overflows into your Terran spells."

Vivio couldn't think of a way to fix that.

In her head, there were only a select number of things wrong that she could think of, and that wasn't one of them. Even if it had been, she doubted that she would have been able to think of a good solution.

"Relax, Vivio," the woman said calmly, trying her best to smile at the youngest Takamachi, but looking terribly nervous all the while. "If you can't think about a way to fix it, don't worry; I already have. You may not like it, though..."

"Shamal," Vivio deadpanned, "learn to be more reassuring."

The woman's worry seemed to mostly fade at the girl's joking manner, but there was absolutely no sign that it was completely gone.

"Right then," she said, professional mask taking hold completely. "Now, the only solution that I can think of for the problem - and I don't even know if it would work, mind you - is to put a Limiter on the part of your Core that filters Belkan and Mid-Childan magics."

"Is that possible?" Vivio asked with a raised eyebrow. "Putting a Limiter on only one part of a Linker Core, I mean."

That was clearly not the reaction Shamal had been expecting, and the look on her face was simply too much for Vivio to be able to prevent herself from laughing.

"You're...okay with that?" the woman asked cautiously, eyebrows shooting straight up as soon as she got over her surprise. "Your mother would have had a panic attack at the very idea at your age."

"I'm flattered," Vivio chirped, "but I'm not Nanoha-Mama, so you're safe for now! I think I should talk with Fate-Mama about this, though."

"Right," said the woman who looked quite embarrassed over the fact that her assumption was mistaken. "Shouldn't you go to your mother about this, though?"

"Do you _want_ her to explode you?"

"Right," Shamal nodded with yet another snort. "I suppose Fate has the right to make such decisions, being your godmother and all, so I'll just leave you to your own devices on this matter, alright?"

"Yep!" chirped out the heterochromatic girl. "Does this mean I should leave now?"

"Unless you have anything else to speak of," the woman nodded, and Vivio scanned her mind to see if there was any other line of conversation to pursue.

"Nope!" she said at last. "I'll see you later, Shamal!"

"Happy Christmas, Vivio," the woman agreed with a nod. "I just hope that I won't be seeing you because you managed to get yourself hurt, alright?"

"Got it!"

* * *

Harry hated the Technology Wing of the Claudia.

It wasn't as though he hated Devices or any of the other things that were normally affiliated with it, but the reminder that the parasite had escaped around that part of the ship would constantly be at the top of his mind whenever he happened to step foot into it.

He couldn't help but to wonder why Fate would want to meet him there.

She had her reasons, the logical part of his mind would argue, but immediately after this his thoughts would return to the parasite and he would once again be wondering what she could have been thinking.

Eventually the particular room he was told to look out for reached his eyes, and he quickly scooted into it. It was a rather bright room containing many screens which honestly looked like little more than advanced versions of what he'd have seen on Earth, each containing a number of strange readings on them that Harry couldn't quite understand.

"Good to see you, Harry," the blonde-haired Enforcer said from her vantage point on a chair. "Have a seat."

Harry's eyes trailed to the area which was indicated, where a second chair sat nearby Fate's. He quickly took a seat on it, and - while he trusted Fate - kept his eyes scanning the room for any sigh of the parasite.

"Thinking about it, asking you to come here probably wasn't the best idea," Fate muttered, sounding rather distressed at the lack of tact in her decision. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Harry shrugged. "If you haven't found the parasite in the past five months, I doubt it's just going to show up now."

"That's the best way to think about these things," Fate agreed, nodding sadly. "Would it be alright to assume you've figured out why I asked you to come here?"

"Sorry," Harry muttered, turning his gaze to the ground, "but I was too busy thinking of..."

"That's alright!" Fate said quickly, and took a moment to compose herself. "That's completely fine, Harry. I can only imagine how much the idea of that thing must bother you, and I should have though of that before asking you to come here."

Although that statement was most likely intended to make Harry feel better about the matter, it managed to make him feel worse, because he really hadn't wanted to work Fate up over a slip-up like that.

Fate - who seemed to be unaware of the wizard's darkening mood at the topic - quickly got up so that she could walk over to a sort of glass dome sitting atop the closest table to where they were seated. It opened up and the woman was quick to grab an object that Harry could only make out as a flash of red and gold.

"Alright then, Harry," the woman said, seeming quite pleased about something all of a sudden. "Do you at least remember the conversation we had before heading out to Platform 9 3/4?"

There were many conversations that were had on the way to the platform, and it took him a moment to realize what particular one the woman was talking about. When he did, though, the emerald-eyed boy's mood brightened right back to the level it was at the beginning of the day.

Mary would be done with his device by Christmas.

"Here you go," the woman said brightly, holding her hand out to the boy. "Merry Christmas, Harry."

In the woman's palm was what appeared to be a lion's head made out of gold, with the eyes and mouth filled with a sort of red gemstone, and topping off was a small loop that Harry quickly realized was meant for a chain to go through. Knowing Devices, Harry realized that the gemstone was the Core which held all of the important parts of it.

The boy was quick to take the Device into his own hand to get a better look at it, and although there wasn't much else to see, the moment it made contact with his skin magic started flowing through the device much more efficiently than it would have a wand.

It was then that the Device seemed to jump to life.

[[New user detected,]] the device said in a rather rather monotone tone of voice. [[State your name.]]

"Harry Potter," the boy replied at once.

[[User registered,]] the device said. [[The name given to me during the time of my creation was Rex Caliber. Would you like to change it, Harry?]]

Harry thought for a moment. He had never even though about what he would be naming his Device, and he really wasn't confident in his ability to come up with a decent name on the spot.

"That name's fine," he decided.

[[Understood,]] the Device confirmed. [[Are there any other matters that need addressing at this moment?]]

"Not that I can think of, no."

[[Very well,]] were the last two words the Device spoke before it seemed to go offline for the second time.

"Wait a second!" called Harry, but the Device made no sound to say it heard. "Not much of a talker, is he?"

"He could be," Fate shrugged, "but he'll need to fully boot up first before you can tell. You can feel your magic flowing through him, can't you?"

"Yeah," the raven-haired boy nodded. "Better than my wand, no doubt."

"That's to be expected," Fate nodded. "Your wand is compatible with your Core, but Rex Calibre here was specifically designed to match it. Not to mention that your Core absorbed that of the parasite after you got your wand, making it less compatible than it would have been if it hadn't."

Harry really wished she wouldn't bring up the parasite while the two of them were in the Technology Wing, but brushed that thought to the side for the moment. Instead, he used the moment to get another look at his Device, and then remembered yet another thing from the earlier conversation he had with Fate.

"This is the first Device of it's kind, isn't it?" the boy asked, and frowned when Fate nodded. "Are you sure it's going to work right, then?"

"It should," Fate nodded, "as long as your magic can flow through it."

"Alright," Harry nodded, once again looking at the Device. "Do you think I could get it to set up, or would I need to wait for the AI to come back online?"

"It should still be functional," Fate nodded. "All you have to do is send your magic through it intentionally and it will realize you want to use it. It would be rather foolish to have Intelligence Devices stop working just because the AI did, however rare that occurrence may be."

"Alright, then."

Harry did as he was told, and with a flash of golden light the lion head pendant was replaced with Rex Calibre's second form, which was in fact a wand. It lacked the carvings that went into the average wizarding wand, and was instead sleek and metallic with stripes of red and gold. Also unlike a normal wand there was a clearly defined hilt on it, and at the other end of this hilt was the diamond-shaped gem that was Rex Calibre's Core.

"Much better than my wand," Harry amended the moment he felt his magic flowing through this form of the Device. "Does it have any other forms?"

"Not to my knowledge," answered Fate, shaking her head. "Mary said that she wanted to wait to try out different forms with the Terran Devices until she had the basics working, so maybe Sirius, Daphne or Astoria could get a different sort of Device, but..."

"Got it," Harry nodded. "I think I'm more comfortable with a wand than anything else, anyway."

"You _have_ been using a wand for the past four months," Fate agreed. "It's probably become second nature to you, by this point."

"No use fixing what isn't broken," offered Harry, shrugging at the idea. "I really think Astoria is going to be the first person who can use a Terran Device that isn't a wand with any real efficiency, since she's never used a wand before."

"Perhaps," Fate shrugged, "but Daphne or Sirius may not like having to use a wand, so we can't rule it out."

"True," Harry nodded, and turned to Rex Calibre with a new train of thought. "Do you think I could try it out?"

"Depends on what sort of spell you want to try," Fate shrugged. "Just don't blow up the room."

"I don't see why a Levitation Charm would do that."

"Alright then," Fate said with a mock-glare. "You try and deal with Nanoha without getting paranoid of things exploding."

"I'll pass," Harry snorted, "thanks."

With that, the boy cast the spell he'd been practicing the past few days aboard the Claudia, and a chair nearby which wasn't in use floated over a foot off the ground. He had to suppress a cheer, because he'd tried the same spell on a similar chair just the previous day, and it was almost certain that the one in front of him was several inches higher than the other one had been.

"There we go," the woman smiled. "Unless you could do that without a Device, of course."

"I couldn't," Harry shook his head with a smile. "Not that well, at least."

"Then I'd say you're set," the woman nodded. "Now; there's only one thing left I have to tell you about, and then you can go off and get into a mock-battle or something."

"Without a Barrier Jacket?" Harry asked, arching his eyebrows straight up. "I think I'm going to have to pass yet again, sorry."

"A Device doesn't use a person's own magic to create a Barrier Jacket, actually," the woman explained, and she at least seemed to be embarrassed that she failed to communicate that earlier. "A mage or knight could use their own magic to create their Barrier Jacket, but the TSAB wanted a way for the non-magical population to be able to defend themselves, and so the ability to create a Barrier Jacket has become a standard for any Device."

"Oh, yeah," Harry muttered, turning his gaze to the ground. "Forgot about that."

"That wouldn't be hard to do, because that simple Device I gave you didn't have the ability to do it," the woman said with a sigh, "and that deserves an explanation. With all that was going on at the beginning of the mission, we forgot that you didn't have your own Device until Vivio reminded us, and then Mary decided that she was going to try to recreate your wand in Device form. By the time it became clear that it wasn't going to be done in time and I convinced her to just create a simple one to let you use telepathy..."

Any anger that Harry may have had for the fact that he had been placed in danger - intentionally or not - was gone the moment he so much as glanced at the woman's face. It was a combination of sadness and embarrassment that told him that nothing he could say would add anything to what she was already thinking of on the matter, not that he really wanted to.

"That's alright," he shrugged. "I remember how chaotic everything was around here at the beginning, and Hogwarts _is_ a school which is considered to be the safest place on Earth. I never expected there to be a wraith capable of possessing people flying around it, either."

"That doesn't matter; I really should have prepared for something to go wrong," the woman said sadly, but she dropped the matter before Harry could try to say anything to reassure her. "Now; what they feel you need to know is why we chose to make you an Intelligence Device instead of a Storage Device."

"So it can pick up on things I couldn't, right?" Harry asked. "I mean, I'm human, so I miss things. Rex Calibre won't miss them, and will be able to play a recording of it later. This would be a good thing for trying to learn more about Terran Magic, hence why I'm getting an Intelligence Device?"

"Yes and no," Fate agreed. "You have a valid reason, but it isn't the main one. What we're really banking on with Rex Calibre is it doing something that all Intelligence Devices have done, but never on this scale; break down the spells that the wielder casts and make them more efficient. For Mid-Childan and Belkan spells this is a rather simple process, but that's not the case for Terran."

"There's never been a Device for Terran magic before."

"Exactly," nodded Fate. "A normal Device would check to see if any other Devices have done anything similar, and factor in what it learns from that search to make the spell work it's best. Rex Calibre won't be able to do this, for obvious reasons. This'll be easier when we get a Device finished for the other three, but it'll still be slow going."

"We're going to be creating a new Magic System," Harry realized.

"Not quite," Fate amended quickly. "It's more like you'll be adapting an existing Magic System to work better with TSAB technology. It'll probably create a sort of split within Terran Magic that could resemble that between the Ancient and Modern Belkan Magic Systems, but it'll still be Terran Magic in nature."

Harry could think of nothing to say about that.

The last new Magic System was a custom System created by Jail Scaglietti, who was undoubtably the brightest mind Dimensional Space has seen in many years. Any other attempts at the creation of a new Magic System would result in it being swallowed up by either the Mid-Childan or Belkan one, which may have been the result of Jail's, should anybody have been able to hack into his Device to get to it.

"So for now it's just me going about this?" Harry asked. "How long until one of the others will get their own device?"

"Quickly enough, now that Mary's worked out the kinks in the system," Fate shrugged. "I'm thinking that Daphne's would be the next one to complete, since the Hogwarts Wards would stop your Device from communicating with either Sirius' or Astoria's, although they should both be done by the time you're next here."

"Alright," Harry nodded. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"I think that's all for now," Fate said with a shake of the head, "although I _would_ like to know what happened to the Device I gave you earlier in the year, since I haven't seen you with it at all."

"You don't know?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't need it for Telepathy anymore, so I let Hedwig take it, and Mary stripped it down to use its parts in the creation of Backwind."

Fate looked as though she had no idea why Hedwig would have done that, and Harry snorted at the sight.

"Hedwig thinks of that thing as my first Device," the boy said, by way of explanation, "and now that all of its parts have been used in Backwind, it's like she inherited it from me. I swear, at times she's just as bad as I am about the whole family thing."

"I don't see anything wrong with that," said the woman, who looked quite quite pleased at what she heard, "and at least it got put to much better use than it would have otherwise."

"Agreed," Harry said, and the mention of his sister reminded him of something else he wanted to talk to her about. "I actually think I may have gotten a Lost Logia as one of my gifts, although Daphne and Astoria are in starch disagreement on the matter."

"A Lost Logia?" the woman said, her entire posture stiffening. "What sort of a Lost Logia?"

"It's a cloak that turns the wearer invisible," Harry explained. "There are more than one of them, but most of them don't last all that long without wearing out, and this one was my father's. Apparently there's a story about a cloak that never wore out..."

"And a lot of Lost Logia are considered to be nothing but a story," the woman nodded, and seemed to be rather relieved at the premise of the supposed Lost Logia. "You should bring the cloak to Mary to check out, and if all it does is turn people invisible then it's safe enough, I think."

"What happens then?"

"Then you get it back," the Enforcer smiled. "The only time we lock up Lost Logia is when they are uncontrollable. It's probably best to let somebody use it if it's only considered a Lost Logia because we don't know how it was created, because their Device may be able to pick things up about it that we wouldn't have otherwise."

"Alright," Harry said, taking the cloak out of the pocket he had it in and placing it on a nearby table. "How long do you think it'll take?"

"Not long with Sirius here," the woman smiled. "He'd be able to tell us if it was actually your father's, and if it was, he'll be able to tell us whether or not it blew a chunk out of Hogwarts before."

"You're talking about things exploding again," Harry noted with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, Harry," the woman said, her tone that of mock-disappointment. "You'll learn soon enough that being friends with a Takamachi means that your life is going to be filled with explosions, whether they're caused by her or not."

* * *

A/N - A lot more stuff than I thought actually happened this chapter; certainly much more than I had thought when I started writing it. Still, we can't have the winter break drag on forever, so it all works out, I guess.

Also, since I couldn't fit it into the chapter; the thievery of Device parts started before September 1st, which is one of the major reasons why they didn't think about Harry not having a Device of his own as they would have otherwise done. They also don't keep a large amount of spare Devices onboard for security reasons, which is why Cadet Summers was being chewed out for losing hers at the beginning of Chapter 4.

TheGAR: Say what you will about Gray Side of the Feather; it's better than a _certain other_ fan-fic in this section, which I will not name. Now, I have my theories on why bashers as a whole don't seem to take criticism too well, but there's a time and place for everything, and that's not now.

Nyamu: I'm guessing you can't tell me where I did that, and seriously; I honestly almost named the chapter something along those lines, and I only didn't do it because Familiar Familiars was bad enough.

Airier: I'll say maybe, because my mind is weird, and nobody is going to be able to figure out what will happen from that.

ultima-owner: Without a doubt, and this probably won't be a good thing.

jgkitarel: The thing is; if the goblins hadn't learned about this information in time, they would have been able to do nothing about the fact that Lord Greengrass already got all of the money out of Astoria's vault, because the laws have many built-in loopholes for Purebloods to exploit.

There's not much that Vivio can learn about Earth culture form this Christmas, because she was raised around a large group of people who are either from Earth, or are involved with Earth in some other shape or form. Christmas was most likely celebrated in the Takamachi household every year, which wouldn't have changed when Vivio got there. The TSAB has, however, learned quite a bit about what they're dealing with, and now we know it, too.


	13. A History of Magic

Disclaimer: I _still_ don't own anything from either series, guys.

* * *

A History of Magic

Vivio looked at the sickly brown substance in the glass she held in her very hand, and couldn't stop a small squeak from escaping her mouth at the idea she had to drink it.

The laugh that Sirius let out at this didn't help to calm her nerves any.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Padfoot?" the girl asked nervously. "I mean, this doesn't look too healthy."

"I don't know what Snape's been teaching you," Sirius replied with a raised eyebrow, "but I don't think that there are many potions in existence that look appetizing and happen to be good for you."

Somewhere along the back of her mind that information existed, but Vivio just couldn't really comprehend it. There was no doubt in the girl's mind that the Wizarding World was backwards - any ability to doubt that disappeared a while ago - but the idea that even the potions were the opposite of what one would expect was just absurd to Vivio.

Still, at least it was something that wizards had no real say in, for once.

"So," the man said with a grin, "while we're waiting for Harry; what do you think you'll be?"

"I don't know," Vivio shrugged, "but I hope it's not something tiny!"

"You're the tallest girl in your year," Padfoot found prudent to remind her. "It would probably be best if you had a small animagus form so that you could get into places you couldn't have otherwise."

"You have a point," Vivio admitted, "but I still don't want to be tiny."

"To each their own," the man shrugged. "It's not like you have much of a choice in the matter, anyway."

Vivio nodded in a agreement with that statement, and turned her attention back to the paste that she was expected to drink. She didn't think it was dangerous - Padfoot was a prankster, not a murderer - but she found that the reminder of him being a prankster didn't do much to reassure her.

Those thoughts were cut short as the door flew open, leaving an opening for a rather tired Harry Potter to enter the room.

[[You made it!]] his Device noted, sounding rather surprised. [[I was sure you were going to be late, waiting for so long to get ready.]]

;;So was I,;; Hedwig's voice chimed through their heads, just as the snowy owl flew in after her brother. ;;Although it's not his fault that he woke up late to begin with.;;

"Shut," the boy started, being forced to take a deep breath mid-sentence, "up."

;;I recommend talking with telepathy,;; Padfoot offered. ;;You don't need to use any breath for it, so there you go.;;

;;Right then,;; Harry nodded. ;;Hedwig said something about a potion?;;

A mischievous glint appeared in Padfoot's eyes just as he walked over to the cauldron and put a bit of the paste in another glass, and this particular emotion only became more prevalent as soon as he handed it to Harry. The raven-haired boy stared at it with a look crossing disgust and terror, and even Vivio found the sight amusing.

;;This,;; the man said, in a voice that sounded as though it was very much for dramatic effect, ;;is a potion designed to force you into your animagus form. Normally, a witch or wizard will need to go into deep meditation to find their form - this potion is a shortcut, in that regard - and then they must continue to do it in order for the transformation to be instinctual. It normally takes half a year for this to work.;;

;;But you guys are different,;; Hedwig continued on, and if the glare Sirius sent in her direction was any indication, she wasn't supposed to have. ;;You guys can feel the magic flowing through your bodies, and then reproduce the effects. With this, you two can have access to your animagus forms almost immediately, and it will become instinctual from repeated use.;;

;;Yes; thank you, Frostwing,;; the Marauder drawled. ;;Now, we aren't sure, but Harry's link with Hedwig could help to make this even easier for him. In theory, Vivio's core being modified to being able to change her age could do the same, since we aren't sure if it uses the same principles or not.;;

;;In theory, it could become instinctual for any wizard immediately,;; Hedwig amended, ;;because all they're really doing is learning a roundabout way to make the magic flow through their body to turn into their respective form. This is how Padfoot got so good at controlling his magic after becoming a part of the TSAB.;;

;;But,;; the Marauder said forcefully, ;;regardless of theories, you should have access to your animagus forms as soon as you drink that potion.

;;In theory,;; Frostwing sang, and Vivio could imagine there being a smirk on her face, were she in her human form.

;;Yes,;; Padfoot conceded, ;;in theory.;;

/This conversation is starting to get a bit annoying,/ Rex Calibre piped up. /In theory./

Harry groaned at that statement, while Hedwig let out a victorious trill which quite resembled a laugh.

;;You are now experiencing family,;; Vivio piped up, trying her best to hide her laughter from the boy. ;;Get use to it, because you're stuck with them for the rest of your life.;;

;;I'm trying to be happy about this,;; the boy said, and there was no doubt from his tone that he was joking. ;;So, we're supposed to drink..._this_?;;

;;That's about right,;; Vivio nodded, and turned her attention back to the paste, trying her best to suppress a shudder at the very thought of consuming it. ;;Are ... Are you _sure_ this is right, Padfoot?;;

;;Absolutely,;; the man laughed. ;;Do you think _you're_ going to be forgetting it any time soon?;;

No, Vivio did not think that she would be able to forget it even if she wanted to, and a quick look into Harry's eyes told her that he felt the same way. A second of silent deliberation - not even telepathy, just the two reading each other's expressions - lead to Harry being the first to take the glass and forcing it's contents down his throat.

The look on the boy's face immediately after was hilarious, but it was quickly distorted as his entire figure blurred and warped into something completely different. Vivio had to fight the urge to coo at the sight presented in front of her.

A small, green eyed raven stood where Harry had moments before.

;;Yes!;; cheered Hedwig, who quickly took to flying circles around her brother. ;;You're a bird - you can fly! Oh, you don't know how great it is to be able to fly whenever you want yet, but you will! Don't just stand there; my instincts should give you a good idea of how flying works, so get up here!;;

;;Hedwig,;; the raven laughed, ;;I don't care if you don't need to breathe for telepathy - breathe! The potion wearing off while I'm in the air wouldn't be fun, you know.;;

;;C'mon, Harry!;; the snowy owl cheered. ;;It'll last a couple minutes! That's more than enough time for a small flight!;;

;;The potion will give you fair warning that it's running out, anyway,;; Padfoot persisted.

;;Oh, all right,;; the boy presumably grinned, and - after a few seconds of adjusting to his new form - the raven lifted into the air, although Hedwig seemed to still be able to fly circles around him. ;;This is the weirdest thing ever, for the record.;;

;;What?;;

;;It feels right,;; Hedwig offered up.

;;Natural, she means,;; Padfoot corrected. ;;Like walking?;;

;;Exactly,;; Harry nodded. ;;Even the transformation felt that way, really. I'm fairly certain that I could do it again if I wanted to. It was a lot different than any other spell that I've yet to cast.;;

;;Then at least one theory was proven correct,;; Vivio noted. ;;Right?;;

;;Sounds like it,;; Padfoot agreed. ;;I wonder, though; did you manage to capture how that worked, Rex?;;

/Yes, sir,/ the Device confirmed. /I'm currently seeing what all there was to it, but it would probably do good to have a second example of such a feat./

;;Right,;; the dog animagus nodded. ;;Then it's up to Chris - when Vivio takes the potion, send all readings you get off of it right to Rex, alright?;;

The bunny plush quickly stuck it's head out of girl's pocket and saluted Padfoot, before quickly sinking back out of sight. Both Sirius and Vivio chuckled at this behavior - sometimes Vivio had to wonder if her Aunt Hayate had some hand in the Device's creation - before turning their attention back to the Potter siblings as they glided around the room.

If Vivio had to guess; it was around three minutes since he took the potion that Harry finally landed, and once again his figure distorted until Harry once again stood in front of them.

"That was great!" he cheered out loud, grinning at his silver-haired sister who had transformed back mere seconds after he had. "You've never told me how great being able to fly is!"

"I didn't want you to get jealous," the familiar smirked, "and you _have_ flown before."

"On a broom," he countered. "It's nothing like that was! There's so much more room to fly around at that size - it's amazing!"

Even if she hadn't heard what he was saying, the look on his face would have been more than enough for her to see just how delighted he was. This turned her gaze to the glass full of the potion that she held, and - deciding not to give herself any time to change her mind - forced herself to guzzle the paste down in an instant.

The first thing she was aware of afterwards was that she would never be able to think of a word to describe how bad it tasted.

The next, and probably more important thing that she realized, was that her own magic was traveling through her body quickly. She decided that the best thing to do would be to memorize it, but she found that she didn't have to - Harry wasn't lying when he said it felt natural to take on the Animagus form.

Without that to focus on, she instead turned her attention to the part of her Core which filtered Belkan and Mid-Childan magics. It was strange to feel that part of her Core with a Limiter on it, but it was a much more pleasant feeling than the one of taking on her animagus form.

"Whoa," said Hedwig, who was (annoyingly) standing above Vivio. "You may not have wings, but I think you got off pretty well, anyway."

;;Really?;; Vivio asked, pleased to note that raising her eyebrow worked the same way in her animagus form as it was when she was a human. ;;What am I?;;

"A bear," Hedwig answered with a grin. "Big, strong, and protective of their family - sounds like you! Of course, Bears are mostly protective of _their children_, but no form would have matched you one-hundred-percent."

;;Huh,;; Vivio mused, hoping that the fur on her face was enough to hide her blush. ;;What do I look like, anyway?;;

"That's the question," grinned Frostwing, "and Padfoot's show, I think."

"That it is," Sirius grinned, waving his wand at a nearby wall. "Just stand in front of there and it'll act like a mirror."

Remembering once again that Sirius was a prankster that could equal Hayate, Vivio made sure to proceed to the wall with caution, but it did exactly as he said it would. Staring at her was a blonde bear with two different colored eyes - one green and the other red - which was no longer a cub, although it couldn't quite be called an adult, either.

It was then that Harry - in his raven form, of course - landed on her head, and up close she could see that his scar still managed to make itself known, through means of cutting through the feathers on the top of his forehead.

;;It's strange, isn't it?;; he noted. ;;So much for it being because of my link with Hedwig, at any rate.;;

;;What do you mean?;;

;;You're not stumbling that much,;; the boy reminded her. ;;I thought I could fly pretty well because Hedwig could, but if you're not having much trouble with your own form, either.;;

;;I could use my dog form pretty instinctually the first time around, too,;; mused Padfoot. ;;I'm thinking it's either one of those things that we aren't supposed to question, or it's because these forms were always a part of us, in a way.;;

;;Huh,;; Vivio muttered, looking back to her reflection in the mirror-wall. ;;Well, since none of us are scientist, can we all just brush it off as Terran Magic not making any sense, yet again?;;

;;Sounds good to me,;; laughed Sirius. ;;Anyway; now that you have your animagus forms, we have to set up a few rules for what you can do with them.;;

;;Padfoot,;; Hedwig started, ;;you had better not say I can't fly around Hogwarts with my brother.;;

;;Nothing of the sort,;; the man said quickly. ;;All I ask of you to do is to keep them a secret from the Wizarding World, since it's illegal to be one without registering, and you I doubt either of you want the attention from being the youngest animagi in I don't even know how long.;;

;;Too true,;; Harry nodded. ;;So what's the second rule? You made it sound like there was more than one.;;

;;Well, this one's more of a request,;; the man said, sighing and shaking his head slightly, ;;but I'm hoping you would be able to do it for me.;;

;;Sure!;; Vivio chirped at once. ;;What is it?;;

;;I want you to keep Moony company during his transformations.;;

;;You want them to help with Professor Moony's furry little problem?;; Hedwig asked immediately, turning back to her human form and staring at the Marauder with a raised eyebrow, being sure to cross her arms over her chest. ;;Are you sure that's a good idea?;;

;;Probably,;; he nodded. ;;Me and Prongs did it.;;

;;You were older than these two,;; the owl muttered, ;;and Professor Moony was younger than he is now.;;

;;Wait a second, Hedwig,;; Harry said, following his sister's example by turning back to his human form. ;;What, exactly, is the problem that we would be helping Professor Lupin with?;;

;;He's a werewolf,;; Padfoot answered bluntly. ;;His transformations are painful, and an animagus keeping him company could keep his mind off of that fact throughout them. Don't worry, Harry; a transformed animagus can't be turned into a werewolf themselves, and I'm fairly certain that he's taking the Wolfsbane Potion.;;

Harry turned his attention directly to Vivio, with a glint in his eyes that was asking what she thought of the matter. Seeing no reason not to go through with this, the bear animagus nodded her head slowly.

;;Alright,;; replied the raven animagus, ;;we'll do it.;;

;;Okay then,;; Padfoot said, in a tone of voice which made Vivio impressed at just how well he hid his pleasure with that answer. ;;Well, the two of you should spend a few minutes getting used to changing in and out of your animagus forms. I know it comes natural to both of you already, but it won't do any good if you don't think of it.;;

;;Right!;; Vivio agreed.

;;And then it's back to Hogwarts,;; Hedwig said with a sigh. ;;Only a few more days.;;

;;You don't sound happy,;; noted Harry.

;;Why would I?;; the girl muttered darkly. ;;Then I get back to being a random owl in the owlery for the majority of the day. Not exactly my definition of fun.;;

;;You could stay up here for most of the day,;; Harry offered. ;;I wouldn't mind.;;

;;Thanks,;; the familiar said with a rueful smile, ;;but I'd worry about you all day, and that's not my definition of fun, either.;;

;;But that's a topic for another time,;; Sirius said quickly, most likely noticing the guilty look hat crossed Harry's face as the boy's sister spoke. ;;Right now me and Frostwing have a bit of a plan to go over, so we'll leave you to your practice.;;

;;Yeah,;; Hedwig agreed with a nod, and she grinned at her brother. ;;Trust me; right now, I have something to do at Hogwarts that will - without a shadow of a doubt - be fun.;;

The two immediately turned to leave the room, but Vivio could catch the small hint of mischievousness in their eyes before they were out of sight, and it was burning at a level that she had never seen before.

She felt truly sorry for whoever their plan may have been targeting.

* * *

The return trip to Platform 9 3/4 went without a hitch, and the group of three first-years were quick to load their trunks onto the train so that they could instead dedicate their full attentiveness to plucking their friends out of the large crowd of people.

Susan Bones was the first they ran into, and she quickly attached herself to her best friend.

"Su," Daphne spoke up at once, "would you mind if I asked you what your reason is for hindering my ability to move on this fine day?"

"Yes," the redhead said timidly, "I would."

"Alright then," Daphne said, and after a moment of thought the emotionless mask she normally donned cracked, showing concern for her friend. "This wouldn't happen to be because of the gift you got Harry and Vivio, would it?"

The other girl nodded her head mutely, and Daphne sighed.

"Oh, Susie," the spectacled girl sighed, shaking her head sadly. "You know that those books were meant for Ministry workers only. Why would you think it was worth the risk?"

"They're my friends," Susan said, strength returning to her. "They - especially Harry - need to know how to get around things in the Ministry."

"And why am I so important in this?"

"Because you're famous," the Bones girl said sadly, "and famous people are expected to know how to get around in the Wizarding World."

Harry was half tempted to remind her that he hated his fame, and would like nothing more than to do something wrong so that he could lose most of it, but the look on her face was quick to beat it into his head that saying such a thing would do nothing but hurt her. He couldn't really complain about the gift, either, because - to his knowledge - the information within was being put to good use.

"She has a point," he piped up. "I have to say, though - from a muggle perspective, some of those loopholes are completely ridiculous."

"That's because they were put there on purpose," Susan said, and the look on her face conveyed the added message that she didn't mind that in the slightest. "If they weren't half as ridiculous, they wouldn't be half as useful. A few of them got me out of being in any major trouble for sending them to you, even."

"They'd also be twice as fair," Daphne added in an undertone. In a much more strong tone of voice, she was sure to add, "But I suppose that if they got you out of trouble there really is no reason to complain, and they could be quite useful. Good thinking, Su."

"Thanks!" the girl beamed, the first trace of the normal Susan poking through. "So, should we go and get a good compartment now?"

"I was thinking that," Daphne shrugged, "but these two really wanted to find you, Ron, and Neville first."

"You never said anything about finding a compartment!" Vivio chirped indignantly.

"I never said I did," Daphne countered with an amused smirk. "I only said I thought about it, and did nothing to blame you for the fact that we haven't."

"A-Ah," Vivio muttered, and Harry could see her trying to fight the redness off of her face. "Right then."

"You may as well go, then," Harry said with a shrug. "There are two of us out here looking for two other people, so you two going to get a compartment wouldn't be a problem."

"If you say so," Daphne agreed, and Harry had little doubt that even Ron would have been able to see how grateful she was for that. "Let's get going, Su."

"Got it!"

The two quickly made their retreat towards the train, and Harry didn't waste any time in looking out over the entire platform, trying to identify one of his two friends. Vivio did the same, although she did take a moment to shoot a huge smile at Harry.

It didn't take long for a group of red-haired children to catch the raven animagus' eyes.

"Weasleys over there," he said with a wave in their direction. "I think, at least."

"It wouldn't hurt to check!" Vivio decided, scanning the room once more. "Should I go look for Neville, then?"

"It would save time," Harry said with a brisk shrug. "It's up to you, really."

"Okay, then," the girl nodded. "See you on the train!"

"Later," Harry agreed, slowly making his way over to the gaggle of redheads. When he was sure Ron was one of them he sped up his approach, but it still couldn't quite be described as brisk.

"- you'll be alright, Ginny," one of the twins said, finishing off the sentence of the other.

"Thanks," muttered the girl that must have been Ron's little sister, "but I'll be fine."

"Oh, alright then -"

"- but in our defense -"

"- we tried."

Ginny shot a glare at her brothers, without a care in the world that they were much taller than she was, and Harry couldn't completely suppress his laugh at this sight.

Naturally, this dragged the entire group's attention to him.

"You see this, dear sister?"

"This is the sight of somebody who has a sense of humor."

"Somebody who knows when they see a true funny man at work!"

"I don't think calling your sister a man will go over very well," Harry mused with a raised eyebrow. "She _will_ be getting to use magic in less than a year, I think?"

The two twins looked nothing less than crestfallen at this statement, while their younger siblings seemed to find it to be one of the funniest things they had heard in a long time. Harry couldn't think of any other reason why the two would have laughed so hard, at any rate.

"Oh Merlin," Ron said when he regained the ability to speak. "Way to make an entrance, Harry."

"I don't see what was so impressive about that," Harry shrugged, "but thanks."

"Just ignore Ron," Ginny offered. "You can start paying attention to him again when he stops being an idiot."

"You were laughing, too!"

"At the twins' faces," Ginny countered dismissively. "You guys _are_ in trouble as soon as I get to use magic, by the way."

"Well then -"

"- sorry dear Ronnikins -"

"- but I do believe that the time has finally come -"

"- for us to take our leave."

"It's about time," Ron muttered under his breathe, and Harry was truly happy that neither of the twins seemed to hear it. "So, where are the others at?"

"Vivi's looking for Neville," Harry answered, waving his arm in the direction of the crowd. "Susan and Daphne are looking for a compartment. They've probably found one by now, actually."

"Then why are we standing around here?" the redhead asked, and didn't wait a moment before walking off towards the train. "Later, Ginny."

"Bye," the girl muttered, and there was no missing that she wasn't quite pleased with her brother's idea of a farewell.

"Hey, Ron!" Harry called, turning the other boy's attention back to him. "I'm going to go tell Vivio that I found you, alright?"

That was a lie - Harry had told that to his best friend through telepathy the moment he was sure Ron was a part of the group. Ron didn't need to know that, though, as he nodded and quickly continued his trek back to the Hogwarts Express.

"Your brother's a git," the Boy-Who-Lived said simply. "I've been trying to work at changing this, but..."

"It's such a shame that you're wasting all of your time for a lost cause," Ginny said, with an air of ridiculously faked pity about her.

"It truly is," Harry agreed, deciding to take upon the same sort of tone that Ginny was using. "I feel, though, that some things must be done, if only for the greater good."

Ginny snorted out a laugh, while muttering, "I think you already made your contribution to the greater good, if some of the stories flying around are to be believed."

"They aren't," Harry countered simply. "I was hardly over a year old, so it was more likely one of my parents or a feat of accidental magic that I would never be able to reproduce no matter how hard I try."

Ginny's reaction to this was not the surprise that Harry had been expecting. Instead, she looked to be completely sympathetic to his plight.

"I know," she said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "but you have to admit that some of them are ridiculous."

"The Wizarding World doesn't really think with much logic," agreed the raven animagus, "and when they do it's flawed."

"Isn't that the truth," Ginny said with a sad sigh. "Every time they say I forced Peter Pettigrew out into the open it gets even more ridiculous, and I've even made it quite clear that I don't even remember what happened! They just adjusted the story to match that, of course..."

"That's a shame," Harry sighed, returning the sympathetic look back to her. "At least you don't have a scar that everybody will recognize."

Ginny let out a snort of amusement just as she withdrew her hand from her pocket, and Harry couldn't keep the horror off of his face. It was much more leathery and wrinkled than a hand had any right to be, and was no less black than Harry's hair. The twinge of pain that flashed through the girl's eyes as she moved it was not missed by the emerald eyed boy, either.

"I don't know about you," the scarred girl grinned - a feat that Harry found incredibly impressive, given the topic of discussion, "but I think this is pretty recognizable."

"I..."

Harry trailed off as he once again stared at the injured hand, and a thought occurred to him that would have had him laughing, were the situation at all lighter than it was at that moment.

"I'm as bad as your brother, aren't I?"

"Hardly," the girl shook her head, grinning all the while. "I doubt any of my brothers would have wanted to talk about my injures, so there's no way you could have known. As far as they know, the healers have said that I'll probably never be able to use this hand as I would have otherwise."

"But that's not the case," Harry observed, shooting his eyebrows straight up, "is it?"

"It is," the girl said in a mischievous sort of voice, "in a way. Of course, the muggles call themselves doctors, so the _healers_ still say it will never work as well as it would have."

"You went to a doctor?" Harry asked, more astounded by this statement than he would care to let on. "I thought wizards didn't see any point in muggle things."

"Most don't," Ginny nodded, "but not my father! He's _obsessed_ with muggle stuff, and decided that if magic can't heal my injuries - having been cursed onto me, and all - we may as well go to people who can't use magic anyway. I think it's working, personally."

The girl flexed her scarred fingers a bit, and the pain in her eyes would have been enough to get Harry to stop her, had the joy not dwarfed it by a mile.

"But yeah," she agreed with a sigh, "my mum would probably explode if she learned we risked using a muggle treatment."

"And so you couldn't risk telling one of your brothers," Harry realized, and grinned when she nodded sheepishly. "Don't worry; your secret's safe with me."

"Thanks," the girl beamed. "Well, I don't think that either of us want you to miss the train, so it would probably be best to break the conversation off at this point. We also sort of snuck away from our mum, so..."

"Right," Harry agreed with a nod. "Good luck with your hand."

"Thanks!" the girl grinned, before it morphed into a smirk. "Good luck with my brother."

"Merlin knows I'm going to need it," Harry agreed with a laugh, and the two quickly headed their separate ways.

As Harry boarded the train yet again, he considered all of the things that he learned from his conversation with Ginny Weasley, and there was one thing which nagged at the back of his mind more and more as it went on.

The Weasley patriarch - open-minded as he sounded to be - had the potential to be a good ally for the TSAB on this mission.

* * *

The snowy white owl watched as the students poured out of the Hogwarts Express and into the school with what would have been a grin, should she have been in her human form, because she knew that this was one of the requirements for the first plan to be put into place by the newly revived Marauders.

Unlike when the originals were in school, however, pranks were not the only thing that were going to be pulled off.

A couple of minutes passed, and it was only when Hedwig felt confident that she took flight yet again, straight to the tall tower that contained the large conglomeration of stairs that were known as the Grand Staircase. She had not reached her destination, though, until she reached a set of three small towers jetting out of the side of it.

This was where the plan would have become hard, had there not been a window left open on the second of those towers. If a younger Peter Pettigrew was to be believed, there weren't any wards on even the Headmaster's Office to warn him when an animal arrived there.

Ignoring all questions as to why the man would leave such a blatant weakness in his own defenses, Frostwing glided into the window, quickly landing on the man's desk in order to get a good vantage point on the room. Hedwig, at least, would have set her desk so that she could see all that went on in her own office.

The first thing she noticed was a powerful-looking bird sitting on a gold perch near the door to the room, staring straight back at her with an inquisitive expression in his eyes.

Hedwig had been told about the old headmaster's familiar, and she had always found it to be a bit of an insult that a glorified pet would be classified the same way as her. Feeling the magic pouring out of the other bird's being, however, Hedwig could not quite bring herself to contest his use of the title.

A long moment passed as the two just stared at each other, and the scene was finally broken when the phoenix waved it's head to the left. Hedwig's gaze followed, and she quickly found herself looking at an old wizarding hat sitting nearby her location.

Her target - the Sorting Hat.

Before the girl risked making a move for the Hat, however, she took a moment to scan the portraits that surrounded the walls of the room. She had been told that the former headmasters only really lurked in the room when they knew something was going to be happening in it, but seeing all of the empty frames came as a relief to the familiar regardless.

Realizing that giving Professor Dumbledore time to walk in on her would be a bad idea, the owl swept into the air and grabbed the Hat in her talons. Once again turning her sights back to her sole witness, the two birds stared at each other for nearly a full minute before the phoenix waved it's wing in the direction of the window, and Hedwig didn't waste any time in her escape.

She glided down to the most dangerous tree on the grounds - the Whomping Willow - and managed to avoid all of the hostile branches to get to a knot in the tree, which she prodded with her wing.

Immediately any movement that the tree may have made on a regular basis stopped, and Hedwig quickly made her way to a gap in the roots. Flying through the small tunnel that it lead to wasn't the easiest task, but she much preferred it to crawling through it in her human form.

"Mission complete, then?" a familiar voice asked when she passed into the Shrieking Shack, and Hedwig immediately dropped the Hat so that she could skid to the ground. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Padfoot," Hedwig muttered, once she turned back to her human form. "That was stressful, though."

"If you're just stressed then you're being melodramatic," the man shrugged. "I never expected you to be the type to get stressed that easily, though."

"You try to stare down a phoenix and be calm the whole time," Hedwig glared. "It won't work, I promise you."

"As fun as that sounds," the man grinned, "I can think of better ways to spend my time."

"Of course you could," Hedwig drawled. "So; should you be the one to question the Hat, or should that honor go to me as well?"

"You know more about the TSAB than I do," Sirius shrugged.

"Right, then," the familiar muttered as she donned the Hat. "For future reference - I feel ridiculous."

;;I'm flattered,;; a voice sounded in the girl's head, and she realized at once that it was the Hat itself. ;;Yes, I understand that it's weird to be talking to a hat. If I may say - I'm surprised that your brother or the young Sankt Kaiser haven't tried to talk to me before this. I suppose they weren't bold enough to risk it, though.;;

;;Yeah,;; Hedwig confirmed. ;;But you already know that, don't you? You can read my mind...;;

;;True is true,;; the hat agreed. ;;Now, onto the matter at hand; you want to know where my knowledge of Dimensional Space and Belka came from, do you not?;;

;;Rhetorical question,;; Hedwig muttered, rather annoyed with the concept of something that can read her mind asking her a question. ;;I don't see any reason to be wasting either of our time with it.;;

;;Very true,;; the Hat agreed. ;;You would have made a good Hufflepuff, by the way. Gryffindor and Slytherin would have fit you as well, but...;;

;;You're stalling,;; Hedwig snapped. ;;Stop it.;;

;;Oh, alright,;; the Hat replied, sounding defeated. ;;There was only really one time when the Wizarding World has come into contact with Dimensional Space before this, and it had a rather substantial impact on the direction the wizards went in. It all started with the arrival of a Belkan named Salazar Slytherin.;;

;;Slytherin was a Belkan,;; Hedwig noted in a drawl, ;;but he used Terran Magic?;;

;;Indeed,;; the Hat confirmed. ;;The Belkan Empire was spread far, so it shouldn't be surprising that the Slytherin family - small, but but considered noble all the same - would get some of the genes for Terran Magic running through them somewhere along the line. Poor Salazar - the heir to the family - got unlucky, and the part of his core that could filter Belkan magic was never developed.;;

;;Sucks to be him,;; the owl muttered, ;;but how did he end up on Earth?;;

;;He was ambitious,;; the hat replied. ;;He wanted to raise his family's position in Belkan society, and he couldn't do that without magic. He had a brain, though, and he used it to create a way to track down a world where his magic could be used. If I were to compare him to somebody in recent times, it would be Jail Scaglietti.;;

The fact that the Hat could get things from her mind so quickly sent a shudder down Hedwig's spine, which didn't stop her from being annoyed when it started to laugh at her mere seconds afterwards.

;;I'm not allowed to share information so long as the person I got it from is alive,;; the headwear explained, but that wasn't what was really bothering the snowy owl. ;;Now, as you could imagine, the Wizarding World before Hogwarts was a completely different place. Wizards could only get training if a more experienced wizard would take them in to teach them. Salazar managed to collect a number of texts on how to work magic anyway, and - with a mind as advanced as his - he made them all seem outdated by the time he was halfway through.;;

;;I could imagine,;; Hedwig snorted. ;;This wouldn't happen to be why he built a school, was it?;;

;;It was part of the reason,;; the Hat nodded - at least, Hedwig thought it did. ;;If there was one thing he agreed with the other founders about, it was that their kind needed to be able to be taught with no strings attached, and they learned what he tried to teach them quickly enough. So, they built Hogwarts, and for years they taught new generations of wizards and witches how to use this new way of utilizing magic in peace.;;

;;Then something went wrong,;; Hedwig sighed.

;;Yes,;; the Hat sighed in agreement, ;;then something went wrong. As many Muggleborns are doing nowadays, Salazar saw how uncivilized the Wizarding World was, and also saw an opportunity to sway them in a manner that more resembled what he was accustomed to.;;

;;Oh Merlin,;; Hedwig muttered. ;;He tried to turn the Wizarding World into Mini-Belka.;;

;;He did indeed,;; the Hat said sadly, ;;and it worked. Instead of basing status on how modified one's core was - he acknowledged that this would never be understood in his time - he based it on blood purity, probably hoping for his decedents to continue advancing the Wizarding World to the state Belka was at over many years.;;

;;That didn't happen,;; Hedwig said, not quite sure if she was relieved about that, ;;but he still damaged the Wizarding World, didn't he?;;

;;Oh yes,;; the Hat answered, ;;and you can still see the Belkan influences quite clearly today. If anything, I'd say that they're stronger then they were back then, even if the Gaunts never quite lived up to their ancestor's expectations.;;

;;I've got that impression myself,;; muttered Hedwig, thinking of how corrupt she heard Belka was in the years leading up to it's destruction. ;;So that's the story, then?;;

;;Not quite all of it,;; the hat said with a grin. ;;Godric wasn't at all happy when he saw what direction Salazar was leading his students in, and the result of _that_ confrontation is history. When Salazar fled the school, however, he took his top three students with him - the Peverell brothers.;;

;;They created the Deathly Hallows!;;

;;Indeed,;; the Hat laughed. ;;What happened to him after that I couldn't tell you, but I know he got married - if only so he could have an heir - and his eldest son was the only person he told about Dimensional Space. He thought his father had finally gone mad.;;

Perhaps it was how casually the Hat delivered his last sentence, but Hedwig couldn't managed to stop herself from laughing.

;;Yes; that was the end of that family secret,;; the Hat grinned - once again Hedwig wasn't quite sure if it was actually doing it or not, but it wouldn't surprise her. ;;Believing that his heir would continue his work, Salazar vanished off the face of the Earth, presumably to return to Belka. Whatever happened to him after that is better learned on your end of things, not mine, but I doubt he would have risked throwing Earth to the Belkans. It was to be a paradise for his kind, after all.;;

Hedwig blinked, having not expected the story to end so abruptly.

;;Oh, it's not over,;; the Hat laughed. ;;Not quite yet, at least. Salazar's story continues on in the form of his decedents, who - despite not believing in Dimensional Space - were starch advocates of blood purity, and showed this by becoming possibly the closest family ever, slowly devolving into animals.;;

;;Ugh,;; Hedwig cringed, mock-gagging. ;;I didn't need to think of that, and thanks for the compliment!;;

;;You are very welcome,;; the Hat retorted. ;;I had hoped that their line could be redeemed when the newest member arrived at the school, but I quickly learned that - while more _genetically_ stable than his relatives - he was every bit as crazy as they were, while possibly just as brilliant as his ancestor.;;

;;Sound like trouble,;; Hedwig noted, more to herself than the Hat. ;;What's his name?;;

;;Tom Marvolo Riddle,;; the Hat said with no small amount of distaste lacing his voice, ;;also known as Lord Voldemort.;;

;;Oh,;; Hedwig muttered dumbly, her mind not absorbing the information as quickly as she would have liked, leaving her unable to think of anything constructive to add to the conversation. ;;That makes sense?;;

;;It does,;; the Hat said, probably nodding once again. ;;The Slytherin family's Rare Skill was one which enabled them to talk to snakes, which Tom certainly had, and your brother somehow stole.;;

;;My brother did what?;;

;;That's what I'm trying to figure out,;; the Hat replied, suddenly sounding rather annoyed. ;;I have an idea of when it could have happened, which only raises some more questions as to _how_ it could have happened, and the answer to that still eludes me.;;

;;Huh,;; the familiar mused. ;;You wouldn't happen to be able to tell me when, could you?;;

;;I apologize, but that is something I learned when on his head, and the earlier rule still stands,;; the Hat said with what Hedwig could imagine to be a grimace. ;;You should probably return me to the Headmaster's Office now, because there exists no other way to sort the first-years into their houses, and that's all the information that I can really give you.;;

;;I think not,;; Hedwig said brightly, and this time it was her that was grinning. ;;If anything, I think it's time for Dimensional Space to shake up the Wizarding World for the second time, wouldn't you agree?;;

Hedwig could not think of any way to describe the seemingly maniacal laugh that the Sorting Hat let out at that statement, other than it left her with no questions to what its opinion on the matter was.

;;Yes,;; it said at last, ;;I believe it is.;;

* * *

A/N - As for why Slytherin never just found a way to artificially create a way for him to be able to use Belkan magic - while not quite the egomaniac that his descendent is, he wanted to prove all the people who said his Core was useless wrong. On a similar topic; nobody else of his intelligence ever had the drive to find a way to utilize Terran magic, and Salazar most likely did something to prevent them doing it, anyway.

Nyamu - It is when you don't know it exists, I guess.

jgkitarel - I'm curious as to why you think the crew would be able to notice one of the _many_ people on the ship being possessed, because I'm fairly certain that I've heard this a couple of times before now.


	14. The Ever Growing List

Disclaimer - I think I've beat it into your heads that I don't own anything from either series by this point, so would you mind too terribly much if I decided to just stop doing it for future chapters. It's getting a bit redundant.

* * *

The Ever Growing List

Vivio's time at Hogwarts had never been better.

With the problem with her Core solved, Vivio was starting to improve with Terran Magic at a drastic rate, although she would happily admit that she was nowhere near Harry's level at it. She decided to compensate this by figuring out a way to mix Mid-Childan, Belkan, and Terran Magics together in a fight.

Unfortunately, she didn't know enough Terran spells to be able to do this very well, but that didn't stop her from planning.

Practicing her animagus form on the grounds was a rather difficult task, given the rarity of bears around Hogwarts, but she still managed to sneak it in at times. Harry had a much easier time of it, with Hedwig knowing all the places they could fly around without being seen, but that was only when he found time between classes, work, and his (still rather absurd) training schedule.

One of these flights had uncovered that - while most students hadn't even an inkling that it had happened - the loss of the Sorting Hat had sowed a small amount of discord among the professors. The only one who didn't seem to be too perturbed by it was Professor Dumbledore, who put a lot of trust in his familiar's judgement.

Vivio felt rather bad about it, but she realized that walking right up the the professors and apologizing for it wouldn't be one of her better ideas.

The girl found something that she really enjoyed doing, in the form of - to Fate's horror - helping Daphne learn to control her magic better, because she found she was starting to like teaching. She was certain that she would never be able to teach a large group like her mother did, but Fate's reaction was too funny to tell that to her.

"Alright," heterochromatic girl said at the beginning of one of those lessons. "Now; I've found a few dummy spells - which should be much safer to use like this than healing spells, mind you - and I'll cast them until you can feel the magic, alright?"

"Sounds good to me," the spectacled girl shrugged, "as long as you're _sure_ that they work better than the healing spells did."

"They should," Vivio muttered, wasting no time in casting the spells. Immediately the other girl's hand started to glow with Vivio's signature magic, and the Mid-Childan quickly asked, "Can you feel it?"

"No," the girl muttered in a rather dejected sort of voice. "How long did it take Harry to do it?"

"It took him a while," Vivio said, hoping that Daphne wouldn't realize that a while was only about three days. "You know the deal; I'm going to increase the power until you can feel it, alright?"

"Same as usual," the Greengrass shrugged, and it was several seconds into Vivio doing as she said she would that the other girl's eyes lit up in recognition. "There it is."

"Good," Vivio said with a pleased smile. "You ready for the next part?"

"Of course I am," Daphne said with a raised eyebrow. "We've been doing this for over a week at this point, Vivi."

"Sorry," Vivio chuckled, shaking her head at her friend. "A small reminder won't hurt, though!"

Deciding on a split second, Vivio didn't give Daphne any time to respond before she started to weaken the magic around the other girl's hand. The spectacled girl blinked for a moment before her face scrunched up in concentration, and it was nearly half a minute before she sighed and shook her hand out.

"Not quite there yet," the girl muttered, sounding rather disheartened. "But I know - we just have to keep trying."

Vivio had nodded her head eagerly at that, and over the next week Daphne had gotten to the point where she could start to feel the magic in her own body, although it would still take a bit more time for it to be at the level where she could start manipulating it.

Still; Vivio found the progress to be nothing but good, since this was her first time truly trying to teach somebody the skill.

All of this - combined with all of the things that their other friends got them involved with - swept their promise to Padfoot to the back of their mind, until Harry finally realized something important only a few days before the full moon.

"We should probably go and talk to Professor Lupin about this, shouldn't we?"

Vivio agreed, and so the two found themselves standing in front of the Defense professor's office door yet again.

"Moony," Vivio called, rapping at the man's door, "we have to talk with you!"

The door flew open, and Vivio frowned at the sight of the man. Although not quite sickly yet, the man looked much more haggard than he did on a normal basis, to the point where Vivio was convinced that a simple poke - one that involved no sort of Belkan magic - would be able to do him in.

"Hello, you two," the man said, shooting an eyebrow to the sky. "What are you doing here?"

"We were just wondering how you're feeling," Harry said plainly. "The full moon's getting close, and -"

"Padfoot told you," Moony realized with a sigh, cutting straight across the explanation. "I don't know what he was thinking when he did that, but there's not much you can do to help. Thanks for asking, though - I feel about as good as I usually do, at this point."

"We _can_ help, though," Vivio insisted, "because we're both animagi!"

Harry shot her a look that conveyed the message that she should have waited a bit before dropping that bomb on their professor, and a quick glance at the man's stunned features confirmed that worry to her. He looked as though there were many things he wanted to say about that particular topic, but they were all canceling each other out before he could speak any of them.

"You're having me on," he said at last. "It's impossible to become an animagus that quickly. Heck; even once they knew what to do, it took the other Marauders three-quarters of a year to do it."

Vivio wanted to immediately protest that, but - not wanting to blurt something else out that could make the situation worse - she turned to Harry, who shrugged back at her.

"We are, though," the eldest of the Potter siblings repeated, an idea flaring to the top of his mind. "We could transform, if you want?"

The Marauder simply glanced over the two of them to gauge their faces for a second before placing his hand in a position in which he could easily grab his wand. Vivio's fighting instincts would have kicked in, had she not noticed how calm Harry was at the situation.

"Alright," he said after a few more seconds, "you can try to take your forms. I can undo anything that goes wrong."

Vivio noted that the man's tone held a challenge - he clearly didn't expect them to actually be able to pull it off.

Harry seemed to notice this too, because his lips curled up into a grin mere seconds before his figure blurred to be replaced by the raven, which quickly took flight to land on the professor's shoulder. Vivio quickly followed his lead, and she was in her bear form within a few seconds of her friend.

From repeated use, the feeling of taking her animagus form had become rather comfortable, if the girl had any say in the matter. It was like her entire being was turned into liquid, and then poured from one container to another.

The professor gawked.

"You couldn't have," he said weakly, looking between his two students with wide eyes. "It took the others three-quarters of a year to be able to take their forms! Even with Sirius guiding you that couldn't have been done!"

Vivio felt a bit bad for the man, and she quickly reverted back to her human form in order to say, "We used a different method to do it than Padfoot did, and he wants us to keep you company in a few days."

"What?" the man asked - his astonishment quickly replaced with fear. "No, you can't do that!"

"Why not?" Vivio asked, taking a step back in shock. "We're animagi, and a transformed animagus can't be turned into a werewolf no matter what happens to them. The book you got Harry even said so!"

"Yes it did," he agreed, "but we aren't sure you're animagi."

"Of course -"

;;I see where he's coming from,;; Harry sighed, and he shook his head when Vivio turned in inquisitive look to him. ;;I'm sure he'll explain.;;

Indeed he did, because it was only a few seconds before he started speaking, "Nobody's ever gained their animal form so quickly before - at least, it was never recorded - so I'm not sure if it will offer the same protections that Padfoot's did."

"He said it would work, though," Vivio countered.

"There's a reason why the rest of us never risked copying any of his work," Remus said, snorting despite the situation. "He never does his research, and I doubt there's much research to be done on this anyway."

"He isn't the only one who said that it would probably be fine!" Vivio insisted. "At least one other person agreed with him on that!"

Of course, the others who agreed were Hedwig and Rex Calibre - two who would know even less about it than Sirius - but Vivio had long since learned a few tricks from the Aces. When to leave something out of an explanation was one of those things.

"I don't know who those people are, so I can't agree with their judgement," Moony said with a tone of finality. "I acknowledge that you can't tell me much about the Bureau, but I can't risk something like that when you used a method that I know absolutely nothing about."

Vivio could have tried to push the issue, but the amount of fear in the man's eyes convinced her otherwise. The point of being with him during his transformations was so that he could get his mind off of the bad of it, not make him even more stressed that something could go wrong. She doubted that even reminding him that he was taking the Wolfsbane Potion could help relieve his nerves on the matter.

"Alright," she conceded, and perhaps it was the tone that she used, but Harry quickly transferred from the professor's shoulder to the Mid-Childan's. "Sorry to bother you, sir."

"Not at all," the man said with a - rather forced, in Vivio's opinion - smile. "Thank you for the offer, anyway."

Vivio just nodded her head in what she hoped to be a way that conveyed that she was happy to do it, and turned and walked out of the room as quickly as she could. Harry turned back to his human form before they left the classroom, and it was only a short walk from there to the room they usually used to practice magic.

"Harry," she said as she slumped down into her chair, "what do we do?"

"I really don't see much we _can_ do," Harry admitted with a sad shake of the head. "The only feasible solution I can think of would be telling him everything, and that wouldn't go over well with the higher-ups."

"He'd probably think we were crazy, too," Vivio agreed with a sigh. "I really wish that he could be brought in on this, though - he could be a great help!"

Vivio could see that - despite the bit of lingering resentment towards the man - Harry agreed with the sentiment. He looked just as lost as Vivio was, though, until the spark of an idea glowed in the back of his eye.

"Do you think we could make a list of people that could be trustworthy?" Harry asked with a bit of excitement. "I mean; more wizards working for us wouldn't be a bad thing, as long as they can be trusted."

"It couldn't hurt," Vivio agreed, latching onto his excitement. "Do you have any other ideas?"

"One for now," Harry said with a nod. "Do you think you could put together a list of people for me, Rex?"

[[On it, boss!]] the pendant chirped. [[What are their names?]]

"Remus Lupin," Harry listed off, "and - I'll have to ask Ron about what his father's name is, but he sounds like he's open-minded enough to be a good ally."

[[Understood,]] Rex Calibre confirmed. [[Messrs. Lupin and Weasley have been added to the list.]]

"Alright then," Harry nodded, seeming quite satisfied with his idea. "I can't think of anybody else to add to the list. Can you, Vivi?"

Vivio scanned her mind for any possible names that could be added, but the only one she could think of was Susan's aunt. Since all she knew about the head of the DMLE was that she was fair, the heterochromatic girl decided to wait until she learned more about the woman before offering her name up.

"I think I have one," she permitted herself to reveal, "but I need to think about it for a bit."

"Fine by me," Harry nodded. "Now; the only thing we need to worry about is how to tell Sirius that Professor Lupin doesn't want our help."

"Hedwig knows him best," the Mid-Childan chirped at once.

"That's an idea," Harry agreed with a small smirk. "If there's any of us that has any chance of appeasing him, it would be Hedwig."

* * *

Despite what Harry and Vivio may have thought, Hedwig didn't have to do much to appease Sirius. The man was disappointed that his friend would decline the help, but that was about the extent of his displeasure towards the whole situation.

This wasn't to say there would be no payback for this task having been thrown to her, even if Hedwig couldn't truthfully complain about it.

"Hey, Frostwing," the man said, just when Hedwig thought the conversation was about to be over, "do you think it could be possible for you to get Harry away from Hogwarts for a weekend, because there's something I need to look over with him."

"I probably could," Hedwig shrugged, "but he'll want to know what it's about."

"There's something I need his help for," Padfoot shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. "I want to see what the condition of his grandparents' estate is after all these years, and only a Potter is capable of getting through the enchantments that are placed on the building. I mean, I know it's possible to do it otherwise, but I don't really want to blow a hole in the building."

"Could I do it, then?"

"I doubt it," Sirius said with a shrug. "The Wizarding World runs off of the idea of blood being the most important thing about a person, so I doubt it would really care that you're considered to be a Potter. None of the Potters cared much about that ideology, but they hadn't exactly reached the ability to create spells that the TSAB has."

"That's dumb," Hedwig noted. "So; why are you so interested in Harry's grandparent's house?"

"Mostly sentiment," admitted the Marauder, "but I also figure it could be useful to the TSAB. It's a huge building, and it could be good for keeping up appearances. No point in risking anybody noticing that we don't actually seem to have a base on Earth."

"As if anybody from the Wizarding World will notice that," Hedwig scoffed, "but I see your point. If there's anything else he should know before heading there, though, I would appreciate you telling me now."

Sirius got a look about him that was quite reminiscent of a cornered animal, and Hedwig decided to wait a few moments before she passed judgment about that.

"You know how there are portraits in Hogwarts that can talk," Padfoot said, knowing full well that there was no way Hedwig _didn't_ know about that. "James told me that he and Lily were thinking of making one for each of them - it was a war, after all, and they wanted a part of them to be there for Harry if anything happened to them - but I never heard whether they were finished or not."

Hedwig felt a prong of an emotion shoot through her at that. She could meet Harry's parents. The very same parents that her brother spoke of as though they were hers as well. The thought was almost too good to be true, and Hedwig could see why Padfoot wouldn't want to bring it up before he was sure.

"Where in the house would they be?"

"With the portraits of the rest of the family," Sirius shrugged. "Out of the way of the majority of the house - I wouldn't think of sending Harry that way until I was sure whether or not Lily and James were there."

"Good," Hedwig nodded. "I don't see any reason to get his hopes up on the matter, but I'll at least have that to bring up if it gets hard enough to convince him to come with me."

"You won't, though," Padfoot grinned, "because Talon doesn't seem like the type to be so interested in school that he'll put it above things like this. He doesn't even need to be at Hogwarts anymore, really - he's already ahead of where most Seventh-Years should be."

"Very true," Hedwig agreed with a nod. "So you decided on Talon, then?"

"It seemed like the right thing to do," Padfoot shrugged. "Prongs was named after an aspect of his form's appearance, and I saw no reason not to continue the tradition with Harry."

"Harry and not me," Hedwig realized with a sigh, but shook those thoughts away from her mind. She was a Potter, yes, but the only one of the family she was really related to was Harry. The house would have been right not to let her into it, as she held no relation to its former residents.

For his part, Padfoot seemed to be a fair bit embarrassed at that.

"I-I thought of it afterwards," he admitted. "Frostwing just worked so well that I never even considered thinking of any other names instead of it."

"It's fine," she shrugged, turning her gaze away form the man. "Both Prongs and Talon are guys, anyway, so traditions that effect them don't have to do anything to me in the slightest."

"That's the spirit," Sirius said with a small smile, "because you _are_ a Potter. Remember that, Hedwig."

The use of her real name was enough to tell the snowy white owl that Padfoot was being completely serious, and it even caught her off guard for a few moments. While she would liked to have been able to say she had a complete change of heart as to her position in the Potter family, all she could say on the matter was that she had more to think about than she did before.

She liked to think this was a vast improvement, anyway.

Conversation after that skirted off to less serious topics, and Hedwig was quick to Dimensional Transfer down to the outskirts of Hogsmeade as soon as it was over. She quickly took her owl form, and spent a couple minutes to fly over the town to take in all of the sights.

The most interesting of those sights was what appeared to be somebody wearing a Hogwarts uniform.

This was not an unusual sight in its own right, but she'd learned to be able to identify all of the students who would have normally made escapades out of the castle, and she was sure this child was none of them. She couldn't get in for a better look, either, before the student slipped into Honeydukes, where Hedwig knew there to be a passage into Hogwarts.

Although she thought lowly of the wit of the Wizarding World as a whole, Hedwig decided it would be best to not follow the student into the store, but instead cut him or her off back at Hogwarts.

In through one of the castle's windows she flew, and sped straight to the Hogwarts exit to the passage to cut the student off.

It quickly became clear, however, that the student either wasn't coming, or that they had managed to get through it before Hedwig got there. Neither made much sense to the familiar - she flew threw the building pretty quickly - but some of Sirius' stories had taught her not to underestimate troublemakers.

She was not going to give up quickly, however, as she flew into a vacant classroom nearby and reverted to her human form.

"Backwind," the familiar started, just as she closed up the door to the room, "can you detect anybody nearby who happens to be heading away from here?"

[[Yes, ma'am,]] the Storage Device confirmed. [[Several, in fact. Would you happen to know which one you're looking for?]]

No, Hedwig hadn't a clue which one she was looking for, but she knew that taking it out on Backwind wouldn't do anything to help. It wasn't really important, either, because it _was_ just a student who was out of the school when they shouldn't have been.

"I know it's a long shot," Hedwig admitted, "but are any of them nervous?"

[[Several,]] the Device revealed. [[Such statistics do not meet up with the definition of something being a long shot.]]

"Oh, shut up," Hedwig laughed. "You know what I meant."

Of course, the owl would be surprised if her Device actually knew anything, because - being a Storage Device - it only had a simple AI that wasn't capable of holding very much information at all. That information was of spells, and anything else it got from being networked with other Devices.

That didn't mean she didn't adore it, however.

[[Is that all, ma'am?]] inquired the Device.

"Yes it is," Hedwig smiled at the blue and white playing card that was her Device's standby form. "You can go back to being offline now, if you want."

[[Thank you, ma'am.]]

Pocketing the Device once again, Hedwig slid a window open and slipped out of it once she reverted back to her owl form. For a moment she considered the idea of scanning the students to see if she could identify the one she saw in Hogsmeade, but ultimately decided that she never got a good enough look at the student to have any idea where to start looking.

Besides; it was just a student out of the castle grounds, and what harm could truly come from that?

Hedwig decided to just keep an eye out to see if the unknown student decided to take another trip out to Hogsmeade, because she had something much more important to do than look for a random student.

She really looked forward to seeing her brother's reaction to what Padfoot wanted, because she knew he would be thrilled at the chance to see his grandparents' house.

* * *

Harry Potter wasn't in the best of moods.

It had been a week ago that Hedwig had told him about what Sirius planned to do, and instead of sneaking out to see to his grandparents' house - the house that his father was raised in - so that he could have a good visual of what his father's life was like, he was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room doing work from nearly every class he had.

When he thought about it, he could probably have gotten it done if he hadn't been training quite so much, and he decided to adjust his schedule accordingly if the workload didn't let up.

It didn't help his mood that he noticed George Weasley walking up to him, although it didn't seem as though the Third-Year was planning to make Harry the victim of any pranks at that particular moment.

"If it isn't Ickle Harrikins," said the prankster. "Just the man I was looking for."

"Here I thought you _weren't_ going to prank me," Harry muttered dryly, although he still doubted that the redhead was planning to, "but why else would you want to see me?"

"Just here to ask you a few questions," George explained with a huge grin. "No reason to prank you when you spend so much time around my dear baby brother."

"Don't remind me," Harry laughed, thinking of all the pranks aimed for Ron that both he and Neville managed to get caught up in. "Now, I don't have much time to waste; what's important enough to prompt one of the Weasley twins to separate from the other just to ask me?"

"A few things, actually," the eldest twin - Harry thought George was the older, at least - said with a shrug. "The first would be why you and Ickle Vivikins spend so much time together in empty classrooms."

The question was meant to embarrass Harry - the tone that George used told him that much, if nothing else - and that knowledge allowed the raven animagus to merely snort and shake his head in amusement. It certainly helped that they had already come up with a cover story to explain that, which wasn't even a complete lie.

"She hasn't been doing well with spell casting, so I've been helping her study," Harry answered with a raised eyebrow. "What else would we be doing together?"

"Alright then," the Weasley nodded, and Harry had to suppress a grin - the look on the older boy's face said quite clearly that he wanted to do quite a few things over explaining that to a First-Year. "Now; a better question would be how you keep leaving the school grounds without using one of the secret passages."

That question caught Harry more off guard, but he managed with great difficulty to force any sign of surprise off of his face.

"I do use a secret passage, though," he said with a shrug. "It's a rather convenient one, too."

"I don't believe that for a second," George said, his face darkening. "My brother and I know the locations of all the secret passages in the school, and we know that there are times that you use none of them to leave."

"I hope you have a good source for this information," said Harry, who felt that he deserved a reward for managing to keep the appearance of being calm, "because it's rather farfetched."

"We have the best sources," the prankster said with a grin, "and I would never dare question any of them."

"And they would be...?"

"Nice try, Potter," George muttered, allowing his eyes to windmill in their sockets, "but asking the questions is my job. And while we're on the topic of questions, I must ask you who Hedwig Potter is. I don't remember hearing that name being called at the sorting, and the gossip network would have a field day with a second Potter running around the school."

This time the shock was simply too much, and Harry let out a small squeak instead of the words that he intended to speak.

There was simply no way that George could know about Hedwig. Harry had even refrained from using her name around other students, so that they would never wonder how Harry Potter's owl said something to him, should he have been overheard talking with Vivio or Daphne about such an event. Yet here it was, that George Weasley knew not only Hedwig's name, but that she also identified as being a Potter.

It was absurd, out of nowhere, and gave Harry a sinking suspicion that the world was out to get him, if only for a moment.

"I suppose that means you know," noted the rather pleased sounding prankster. "Don't just sit there - you aren't getting out of this."

"Something doesn't make sense about this," Harry noted, trying to buy time as best as he could. "I can't think of any feasible ways for you to know about Hedwig."

"I can't go around revealing my secrets," George grinned. "My sources are always right, though."

"So I've heard," Harry muttered, shaking his head, "but I can't tell you who Hedwig is until you tell me the names of your sources."

"I simply cannot do that, Harry," George said, clutching his hand over his heart dramatically. "I am bound under a prankster's oath that prevents me from speaking the names of my assistants, but I must insist that you tell me the identity of this mysterious Potter roaming the school."

"I have my own reasons not to tell you who Hedwig is," Harry replied coldly, "unless you tell me who your sources are."

George appeared to have not expected a First-Year to speak in such a tone, and it took all of Harry's willpower to keep up the charade instead of laughing. It was nearly a minute later - by which point Harry had gone back to doing his work - when George sighed in defeat.

"The Marauder's Map," he said. "A map created by the most brilliant pranksters in Hogwarts history, which allowed them to keep an eye on where everybody is throughout the castle. Even Professor Dumbledore shows up on it, although Professor Lupin doesn't, for some reason."

That was Harry's opening, and he wasn't going to waste it.

"Well, you don't think the Marauders would let anybody else see where they are with their own map," he grinned, chuckling at the look on George's face, "do you?"

"You aren't serious," George breathed out, staring at Harry as though he was some new form of life that he had never even heard of before. "Did you just say Professor Lupin was a Marauder?"

"Of course; he's Moony," Harry said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Padfoot told me, and I have no reason do doubt him on the matter."

"Professor Lupin is Moony," George repeated, looking at Harry dubiously, "and you say you know Padfoot?"

"He's my godfather," Harry shrugged, "and my father was Prongs. Sirius has actually dubbed me Talon, although I don't really have any immediate plans towards pranking."

The older of the Weasley twins looked to be absolutely stunned, and Harry wouldn't be surprised if Hedwig was now the last thing on his mind. It was time to put an end to the conversation, although Harry did feel a little bad for what he was about to send the boy off to do.

"You should go ask Professor Moony if he could give you some advice," Harry offered, "because you could do so much more with seven more years of solid pranking behind you guys."

That was all it took to get George Weasley to drop a subject, it seemed, because the young prankster quickly dismissed himself from the conversation to go look for his twin brother. Harry could only be grateful that he mentioned the Marauder's Map, because he didn't see any other ways he could have ended the conversation that easily.

There was no doubt that the topic would be brought up again, however, so he started to think of ways to explain Hedwig's presence in the school.

;;Rex,;; Harry decided, ;;I need you to add Fred and George Weasley to the list, because I doubt they're going to just drop the matter.;;

/Can do,/ the Device said cheerfully. /If we're going to be adding other children, shouldn't all of your friends be added to the list, too?/

The idea was a good one, Harry had to admit, but it quickly brought his mind to Wormtail's betrayal of his parents. The animagus knew that it made no sense to add people he hardly knew to the list while keeping his friends off of it, but there was just something nagging at the back of his mind that told him not to.

;;No need to make them worried over it,;; Harry said dismissively. ;;They have enough to worry about with school work. I don't even want Fred and George on the list, but what can you do?;;

/I can tell when you're lying,/ Rex Calibre said in a tone that sounded rather disapproving, /but alright. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed?/

;;There actually is,;; Harry admitted, happy to change the subject. ;;We may have to adjust my training schedule if the amount of work to be done for each class stays this ridiculous.;;

/Finally,/ the Device muttered, if it could do such a thing. /As happy as I am at all the improvement you've been meeting over the past month, it hasn't been fun having to process all of the spells that you've been casting, combined with the data that Chris has sent me./

Harry felt a pang of regret shoot through him as he realized he never wondered what Rex went through with all of his training, and he made a mental note to ask the Device about it in the future.

Harry settled on saying, ;;At least you're getting help. I wonder what Daphne's Device is going to be like?;;

/I do, too,/ Rex admitted. /We'll find out later in the day, I guess./

* * *

"I hope she managed to make it like I wanted her to," Daphne gushed, glancing around the hallways of the Claudia in search of their destination. "It would be fine if she didn't, of course, as long as it isn't a wand. I'm done with them."

The laugh that wanted to present itself was hard to contain, but Vivio felt that she did an admirable job at it. Daphne was normally so calm about everything, so seeing her like this was a treat that Vivio would have been more than happy to share with Astoria, if she realized it was going to happen.

As it was, though, Vivio had to fight the urge to tease her friend on her own.

"Why are you done with wands?" Vivio asked earnestly. "They aren't that hard to use, once you get used to them."

"My parents would have a stroke if they learned I was using anything but a wand to cast magic with," the elder Greengrass said with a huge grin, "and that's practically _begging_ me to use anything but a wand to cast magic with."

"Whatever you say," Vivio muttered, making a show of rolling her eyes. "Mary's office is just over here - c'mon!"

Unlike Harry, Vivio wasn't worried about the Technology Wing in the slightest. In fact; she hoped that the parasite would try to attack her again, because she had quite a few ways of dealing with it worked out in her head. She knew that it was a rather unlikely event to occur, though.

She instead turned her attention back to her friend, whose eagerness was practically tangible as she opened the door to the office.

"There you two are!" smiled the dark green haired Device Meister. "I'm really sorry that it took so long to get your Device finished, Daphne, but I wanted to make sure that there was no chance of there being anything wrong with her."

"That's alright," the Ravenclaw said, peering around the room as though her new Device was hidden somewhere in plain sight. "I take it you managed to make her the type of Device I wanted, then?"

"Yep!" Mary practically cheered. "It wasn't the easiest task ever, but it was certainly easier than creating Rex Calibre from scratch."

Daphne's grin threatened to split her face in half, which wasn't helped when Mary took something out of her pocket and handed it to the younger girl. Vivio could just make out a metallic sheen to the object, so there was little doubt as to what it was.

Sure enough, moments later the Device spoke up.

[[Detecting new user - please state your name.]]

"Daphne Greengrass," the girl said at once.

[[Understood,]] the Device confirmed. [[Do you have a desired designation for this Device?]]

"Serpent's End," Daphne said once, causing Vivio to choke back a laugh. "You can be designated the nickname Ender, if you like."

[[Designation added,]] the Device said. [[Are there any more matters to be discussed?]]

"That's all," Daphne smiled. "Good night, Ender."

[[Understood.]]

With that the Device went offline to boot up the rest of her systems, and that was when Vivio got a good look at the Device's standby mode. It was a simple bronze ring with a blue gem in the center of it, with that gem being the Core of the Device. It looked extraordinarily like an ordinary ring, and Daphne donned it on her smallest finger on her left hand.

"That's where my family ring would have gone," Daphne explained. "I personally think that Ender deserves the spot much more, wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess," Vivio frowned, realizing something for the first time. "Making your Device an embodiment of your hatred of your family doesn't seem fair, really."

Daphne turned on her, and the Hufflepuff shrunk back from her friend. Fortunately, it seemed as though the former Greengrass Heir didn't want to risk her friendship with Vivio over a small comment, so she sheepishly turned her attention over to Mary.

"Do you have anything I could read on Devices?" asked the spectacled girl. "I'm curious as to how they work."

Mary stared appraisingly at the girl for a moment, before she said with a grin, "I know just the one."

"Thank you," Daphne said with a small bow. "I'll be off to see my sister, if you don't have it on hand."

"Alright," Mary nodded, smiling over to Vivio. "I'll be seeing you two later."

Vivio wanted to point out that it would probably be better if she was away from Daphne for a time - she really hit a sore spot with that comment - but the Device Meister's gaze convinced her otherwise. She could try to appease Daphne, at least.

"Alright," the heterochromatic girl said with a small smile. "See you!"

Daphne passed on her own farewell, and the two girls headed back out to the corridors yet again. It was nearly a whole minute of silence that Vivio spent to be able to bring herself to talk to her friend again, although she wasn't too confident about her ability to make it up to her.

"Hey, Daph," the Mid-Childan said weakly, "I'm really sorry..."

"I know," the witch said with a small grimace. "You have a bad habit of speaking before you think, and I get it. I'm not going to get mad over it, especially when you have a point."

"You - I do?"

"Yes, you do," Daphne sighed. "I remember how much autonomy Chris and Rex have, and it really isn't fair for Ender that I put such a stigma on her. I suppose I just wasn't thinking about that, and I don't think it's possible to change it now -"

"It's not," Vivio confirmed.

"- and that isn't fair," the spectacled girl finished lamely. "In my defense, though, I was more thinking of Slytherin's main ideology rather than my parents themselves. It still doesn't make it much better, but make of it what you will."

Vivio thought that was indeed less unfair than her first suspicion, but it still wasn't at the point where she trusted herself to comment on it. Instead, she put on a huge smile and nodded at her friend earnestly, which seemed to relieve the brunette's worries significantly.

"So," the Ravenclaw said after a moment of - significantly more comfortable - silence passed between the two, "aren't you at all interested about what Ender looks like when set up?"

"I am," Vivio nodded, "but I expected you to bring it up if I ignored it for long enough."

"Prat," Daphne grinned just as she cuffed Vivio on the shoulder. "As if you planned that all out. I would have expected that from my sister, but it's no secret that the Hat didn't even consider putting you in Slytherin."

"That means nothing," Vivio huffed. "I wasn't manipulating you so much as I was prediction your actions, which is more of a Ravenclaw trait than a Slytherin one."

"Whatever you say," Daphne said with a dismissive shrug. "Let's not stay in suspense, shall we?"

Before Vivio had the chance to answer, her entire field of vision was consumed by a blue light, which disappeared after a mere moment. In Daphne's right hand - the opposite that she wore Ender on in her standby form, Vivio idly noted - was a bronze-colored glove, which held a Device Core on the back of it. This Core was connected to the tip of each of her fingers through glowing lines of the same color, although there seemed to be little point to this.

"Simple," Daphne noted, "but I wasn't expecting anything more."

"A lot of Devices have rather simple designs, Daph," Vivio said - making a show of rolling her eyes, because she was more than happy to be friendly with the elder Greengrass again. "The wearable ones more than others."

"Whatever you say," Daphne muttered with a grin, looking towards her Device with an increasingly raised eyebrow. "How long do you think it'll take for Ender to boot up fully?"

"An hour," Vivio offered. "Maybe two, depending on how sophisticated her AI is."

"Alright, then," Daphne said, staring at the Device for a few more seconds before shaking her head and turning away from it. "I wonder what sort of Device Tori is going to go for. I just hope it isn't a wand -"

"Daphne!" a happy voice rang out, and Vivio couldn't turn her head quickly enough to see the younger Greengrass before her arms were wrapped around her sister. "Why are you _here_? You should be at Hogwarts!"

"I'm getting my Device," Daphne said with a grin, flexing Serpent's End in her sister's line of sight. "Vivio brought me here."

Astoria - who was staring at her sister's Device in awe mere seconds before - started scanning the room immediately, and her face darkened when her eyes landed on the girl her sister had mentioned. It was well concealed, and for that Vivio gave her credit, but she clearly still blamed the Mid-Childan in part for her being disowned.

Daphne seemed to notice this as well, and she nudged her sister on the shoulder.

"Get going back to our room," she said, shaking her head at the confused look on her sister's face. "I'll meet right up with you; I have something to talk with Vivio about before we part ways."

Tori passed a dubious look between her sister and Vivio, before deciding that she wasn't being lied to and leaving the two alone.

"I'm really sorry about her," Daphne sighed. "She's being stubborn, but I think I'm starting to get through to her. I'll keep trying to convince her that it wasn't your fault."

"Alright," sighed a disheartened Vivio. "I thought maybe she'd stop blaming me after Christmas, but..."

"I think she did stop blaming you around then, really," Daphne said, letting a small smirk take hold of her face despite the situation. "Tori's just too stubborn to admit that she was wrong. I'm sure that the two of you will be friends before the end of the school year. It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened."

For some reason, Vivio highly doubted that Astoria had before gone though getting over the fact she was disowned, and doubted it even more that she had forgiven one of the people who she held responsible for this fate. She really did hope Daphne was right, though.

"I hope so," Vivio said with a sigh. "Nanoha-Mama always told me that it's best to make as many friends as possible, because life's at it's best when you have a bunch of people you like around you, instead of people you don't."

And - Vivio realized with a jolt - despite this, she hadn't made an attempt to become friends with Pansy Parkinson in months. There was no reason for it, since Vivio knew how her mother and godmother's friendship started, but she just never thought it would do any good to try.

But why not?

"I don't like that look on your face," Daphne noted with a smirk. "You're planning something, and I doubt you want to tell me what it is."

"Why wouldn't I tell you?" Vivi asked, tilting her head to the side slightly. "You're my friend, after all. You know her, too - do you think it would be possible for me to be friendlier with Pansy Parkinson?"

Daphne's eyes widened for a moment, before she did nothing to stop herself form laughing outright at the idea presented to her.

"You could try," Daphne said with a small grimace, "but I think Pansy would rather be dead than friendly with you."

* * *

A/N - So many things in the past two weeks - I won't bore you with the details of why there hasn't been a chapter, but I think I can say there won't be the same problem with the next. I hope. At any rate, I apologize that it took so long to get this one out.

Now, I know that they never hinted to Harry's grandparents having an estate, but I don't see why it's too outlandish. There is no doubt in my mind that the Potters are rich, and - unlike most fics seem to like to believe - I don't think the Wizarding World has an established real estate market that will hold records of eveyr house owned by everybody in the Wizarding World. It always seemed more medieval than that. As for why nobody ever told him - too risky, both because of the blood protection and it's not the most secure place ever.

Also, before I start replying to your replies, I have to ask; am I the only one whose email alerts have stopped working?

Nyamu - Thanks for that; I'll get it soon enough! I know about CtrlF now, but I should be able to find a section of a chapter easily enough. I read through them several times before posting them, so I should be able to recall them quickly enough.

I want to write the introduction to the TSAB, but I just can't think of any way to do it well! As for the answer to your question:

Harry (and Sirius) know the most about her out of the Harry Potter characters. He's been told who she's a clone of, he certainly knows about Chris, he knows quite a few of the Nanoha characters (I haven't established who they all are, though), and the only thing he really doesn't know about is how Vivio was involved in the JS Incident. She's never been able to bring herself to talk about it with him, and nobody else is going to break her trust like that.

The next would actually be Tori, who lives on the Claudia. She knows several of the Nanoha characters and Chris, but that's about it. She knows a lot about the history of Dimensional Space, though, and would know who Olivie is the moment Vivio tells her. Daphne's shortly after, since her main experience with the TSAB lasted two weeks, even if she sneaks out with Vivio once an a while to go to the Claudia.

The teachers, Peter and Tommy all know she's from a secret society, but other than that she's simply a normal girl to them. The other students, however, simply think of her as a Muggleborn Hufflepuff girl.

Congratulations, by the way, for getting me to write the longest reply to a single review ever -

Nyamu - and getting me to reply to a second one!

It is certainly still first year. The Hogwarts year is split with two separate breaks - Christmas and Easter. The reason they left that time was to go on the Christmas break. I don't think that they're quite half way through the year, actually.

jgkirarel - Ah, well then. I don't know much about the military, so I didn't even realize that. If you have anything else you think I should know about it, feel free to tell me.


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